The Last Daughter
by ijs1337
Summary: An unexpected arrival brings new family, new tensions, a new Team member, and ultimately a new threat that will test the League and Team as they have never been tested before.
1. Chapter 1-Arrival

**Note: So, I've had the rough ideas for this honestly huge multi-part series in my head for years now, and with the announcement that Season 3 is happening (WHOOOOOOOOO!), I realize I need to get at least some of this out there before Season 3 releases and turns all of my ideas into even more egregious, fan-wankery nonsense than it already is. This is also a great way to get myself back into the fanfic mindset that I've been out of for nearly a year now (thanks to school and job searching). This first major arc involves… well, you'll see.**

 **I do not own Young Justice, or any characters therein. Please review, comment, or criticize constructively. Most of all, enjoy.**

* * *

The Last Daughter

Chapter 1

Arrival

* * *

"I'm just saying, I can think of better uses for our time than monitor duty." Jaime bemoaned, turning from the long-range scanners and sending his chair spinning with a firm push to the console.

"Hey, someone's gotta watch the sky. And, to be honest, I kinda appreciate the chance to slow down, kick back, and relax a bit." Bart replied, leaning back and setting his feet on the edge of his end of the station. Jaime paused at that, and just had to sit there in shock.

"You DO realize the irony of you, of all people, saying that, right? Just want to be sure you know how ridiculous that sounds coming out of your mouth." Jaime snorted out.

"Shut up." Bart called back to him, wadding up a piece of paper and tossing it over his shoulder in Jaime's general direction. A few seconds later, the ball smacked against the top of Bart's head, draped as it was over the edge of his seat.

In less than a second, Bart had Jaime's chair turned around, both hands gripping his sneakers, a devilish grin on his face.

"Don't you even-" Jaime was cut off as Bart ran a circle around and with him before letting go, leaving his chair whirling at speeds he was surprised weren't breaking the whole thing outright. Suddenly, he stopped, and fell completely out of the chair, the room still spinning and his stomach angrily festering. "Dude, what the-"

"Uhhh…" Bart simply pointed, and Jaime looked to see what was clearly some sort of object barreling into Earth's atmosphere. Now that he could hear beyond the rushing wind, he could hear the alarms ringing in the room.

"That's not good," Jaime thought out loud, carefully getting to his feet and nearly falling over; the floor still looked like it was in five different positions. "That's not good at all."

"Look at it this way," Bart offered weakly, "We're probably never going to get stuck with monitor duty again."

* * *

"You kids do this sorta thing often?" The cop asked, keeping her gaze fixed mostly on the spaceship that had crashed on the outskirts of Metropolis. A perimeter had gone up within the hour, and the arrival of the juniors of the Justice League, while not entirely expected, was also appreciated.

"Not as often as you'd think, but a lot of us weren't on-mission." Conner admitted. "There's also the fact that _some of us_ ," He directed a glare in Bart and Jaime's direction, "Missed this coming in from orbit. Our mess, our responsibility to clean it up."

"Movement." Aqualad cut in, pointing at the object that had buried itself in the highway leading into the downtown area. Conner could see metal shifting and sliding, and thought for just a second that he saw what looked like the Superman symbol before a top section of the object slid off to one side. A very human-looking hand reached up from within. And a very human-looking girl, clad in some sort of body-covering suit, clambered over the side of what Conner was now realizing was a space ship. She dropped roughly to the ground, and started coughing, hacking out some foul-looking goo as mist rose from the interior of the craft.

The Team slid under the barriers and approached cautiously. The girl didn't appear to be a threat. She barely looked older than Conner. And the more cognizant she seemed to grow, the more terrified she seemed to get. Conner's hearing was better than what he understood the human average to be, thanks to his Kryptonian DNA, and he could hear her whispering and whimpering furiously, frightened. Everyone else could see her waving her hands in front of her, then reaching quickly to clasp her hands around her ears, as though there were terrible noises only she could hear.

"Excuse me," Aqualad called, putting on his Leader Voice, as Bart had termed it. "We ask that you identify yourself. If your intentions are-" He stopped short as the girl turned to them, a look of confusion and horror on her face. She kept waving her hands in front of her face again and again, screwing her eyes shut between each attempt. What she was trying to accomplish or convey could only be guessed at. Conner could better understand her muttering now that they were closer, and as far as he could tell, she wasn't speaking any language even remotely close to any on Earth.

Finally, she opened her eyes again, and it was immediately clear from her expression that something had changed. Her gaze then locked straight onto Conner.

"Kal?" She called out, questioningly.

"I understand you must be confused, but I must-" Aqualad tried to resume his 'welcome-to-Earth-unless-you're-here-to-cause-trouble' speech.

"Kal." The girl called more insistently, pointing towards Conner and continuing to speak in the language no one there could place. Suddenly, it hit Conner like Blockbuster, and he took a moment to check, just to make sure. He was wearing his classic shirt. The one with the Superman logo on the front. "Kal-El," The girl called again, desperation seeping in to the rest of her words, before she cried out in pain and dropped to her knees, screwing her eyes shut and grasping at them. Conner started forward, brushing past Kal'dur. He reached, slowly.

The girl raised her head again, and it seemed as though she forced her eyes open to lessen whatever pain was building in her. Conner got a second to see the bright glow building in her irises, and to recognize that he was about to be very sore. Bright blue beams shot from the girl's eyes and hit Conner square in the chest, and he could hear her scream in fear over the sound of the eyebeams superheating the air around them and everyone else start to leap to action. Then his ability to focus on sound was lost and he was lifted clean off his feet and blasted through the barricades, and what felt like at least one police car. He rose unsteadily to his feet and saw the girl backhand Wonder Girl straight across the road, her eyes tightly shut. He saw the cops open fire, and if he focused, drawing on his Kryptonian aptitude, he could just manage to make out the bullets folding themselves into disks against her. Kal'dur came in from behind with water maces at the ready, and the girl seemed to try to leap backwards, clearly able to hear or feel him coming. Only she shot straight off the ground and into the sky, and Conner could hear her screaming in fear again.

His hearing still focused on the girl, he could only imagine that Kal'dur was getting the Team ready to pursue with force.

"Kal'dur, stop!" He yelled, going with his hunch. "We need…" He stopped with a pained groan, dropping to one knee. He'd taken lasers before, and Kal had even nailed him with heat vision once or twice in training, but nothing on this scale had hit him so hard before. He could see his skin was developing into a burn scar on his chest. "We need to contact Superman." Conner growled out, forcing himself to his feet again.

"Come on, we can handle-" Bart started to say.

"Listen to me." Conner demanded angrily, and everyone, even the cops who were scrambling on radios and into squad cars, stopped at his tone. "She thought I was Superman. She called me by his name."

* * *

She thought she'd gotten a handle on whatever was happening with her vision. She could _see_ , in ways she'd never thought would be possible. She could see waves of radiation pouring onto the planet from space; she could see through her own hands, to the muscles and bones and nerves beneath her skin. Then her head and eyes had burned, and she shot Kal with lazers _from_ her eyes, knocked a girl for dozens of feet like it was nothing, and _now_ …

She was practically soaring through the air. In the middle of what was clearly a city, and she was desperately trying not to hit anything. Her success at that was up for debate. She'd clipped the side of a building as she tried frantically to slow down, to set herself back on the ground, and had torn away the face of it. She thought she'd be in agony after such a crash, and that she'd at least be forced down. But she barely felt the impact, and her movement was barely slowed. So she kept trying to keep herself centered and away from the buildings, that she could now see into because she wasn't focusing on that anymore, that she could see were filled with people.

She carried on like that, trying to make sure she could actually see what she didn't want to hit, and not hit anything, before she could feel herself slowing, and dropping. Instinct took over, and she tucked into the fall, while trying to aim herself in the middle of what were clearly roadways, full of people. She felt her body smash into the ground and keep moving, tunneling through and slamming into water, and carrying through that into deeper ground. Water started pouring into the hole she'd inadvertently burrowed. Foul water that almost swept her away. She clawed for purchase with her hands and feet in the hole, and decided she had to risk it.

She jumped again.

She tore through the earth as easily as she was coming to expect she could, though she had no idea why. She rushed through earth and water and what she assumed was a sort of stonework, and found herself almost flying again. Only worse this time. Because her lazer-eyes had come back.

She'd felt it building in the back of her eyes as she ascended to the crest of her jump, but she couldn't do anything to stop it. Blue, almost white-hot beams leapt from her eyes, and she just barely managed to get her hands in front of her eyes to block to beams. They burned to touch, but she couldn't risk wildly firing blindly, _literally_ , into a city full of people. She only had to hold them long enough to… She screwed her eyelids shut, and dropped her hands, feeling herself descend again. She hadn't jumped nearly as hard as the first time, and she hoped to angle herself better on the next landing.

She was sure she… bounced. It was the only word she could come up with for how it felt. But she hadn't drilled a hole, so she was considering that progress. Now for her eyes. She focused, like before, on stopping. She felt the heat drain away to the backs of her eye sockets, then bleed away into her head entirely. She carefully opened her eyes. And found herself staring a giant golden statue, set in front of a great fountain. The details of the statue; the suit, the cape, and most of all, the symbol emblazoned on its chest.

There was no other option. That was what her eyes were telling her. But everything she _knew_ , told her this couldn't be possible. There was no way he could be…

She felt the ground shake, and turned fearfully. The boy, who looked so much like Kal, who even wore the House's symbol, though on clothes she'd never seen the like of before.

"Is that…" She started, but almost didn't want to finish. If so much was already so wrong, did she want to know more? "Is that Kal-El?" She asked, pointing to the statue. The boy looked confused, clearly not understanding her. Then, his expression shifted, to love and hope and reassurance. He pointed above her head.

She turned, and saw a man descending from the sky. Clad in red and blue, a cape flowing behind him, the symbol of El stamped in gold.

"Kal?" She whispered to herself, her disbelief only growing. The man, already looking concerned, grew obviously moreso, and hastened his descent. He landed right in front of her, and reached out to clasp a firm hand on her shoulder.

"Yes." He responded, in perfect Kryptonian.

* * *

 **So, meet Supergirl, everybody. The key point of this was to drive home the fact that Kara was absolutely NOT expecting to have superpowers when she landed on Earth, and the whole conflict of this chapter, that'll probably also dog her in the early goings in her interactions with Earth as a whole, is her having trouble adjusting to all the powers Kryptonians have under a yellow sun. I'd like to think that Kryptonians were always aware of what they used to be physically capable of, but anyone living on Krypton proper (which was all of the Kryptonians by Supergirl's generation, and a few before that) wouldn't have had powers for centuries at least because of the aging of Krypton's sun. And, obviously, suddenly having uncontrollable X-Ray vision and super strength/invulnerability and heat vision is going to freak a mid-teens person out (Superman has always gotten his powers back within minutes of going from red sun to yellow sun, which is technically exactly what's happened to Kara here, going from Krypton's sun to Earth's). The exact reasons for Kara's confusion as to who Superman is, and who she thinks he's supposed to be, are going to be covered in the next chapter or two, as everyone learns about her, and she learns about everyone and everything.**


	2. Chapter 2-Truths Unthought

**Note: Glad to see what I'm assuming is a positive response to the first chapter. This is mostly set-up, but it's set-up for a different history for a lot of things and people, Krypton and Supergirl most prominently. I do not own Young Justice, nor any characters therein. Please review, comment, or criticize constructively. Most of all, enjoy.**

* * *

The Last Daughter

Chapter 2

Truths Unthought

* * *

"I can't say I'm all that comfortable with this, Bruce." Clark said as he glared into the room through the one-way glass pane. Kara, she'd said her name was, was laying on a table in the center as scanners of all sorts went over her.

"You know as well as anyone here that we can't trust that anyone is who they say or even think they are anymore, Clark." Bruce replied, tapping away at the computer as results started coming in.

"You didn't think Bart was a potential Cadmus clone." Clark challenged.

"I actually ruled that possibility out early on, with Nightwing's help. His DNA traces back to Barry, but it's diluted naturally to the point that his claims are backed up; doing that through brute force would take more than I think even the Light has the time or knowledge to achieve." Clark wasn't sure if he even should have felt surprised that Bruce had managed to take and test the DNA of a time traveler to make sure they were who they claimed they were.

"She speaks Kryptonian." Clark insisted. "Perfect Kryptonian. There are only two places in the universe she could've learned the language, and we both know the Light can't access the Fortress. And the other one has been destroyed since before I even landed on Earth." Batman just grumbled in response.

* * *

"We'll be keeping an eye on you," the man in black with the pointed mask, Batman, she thought she'd heard Kal call him, said when she came out of the room. "Standard procedure, I assure you, and only for a limited time. We've had personal problems with moles and sleeper agents, though Superman is willing to give you the benefit of the doubt." It was strange, to hear all the names her cousin had here. "I'd also recommend, in everyone's best interest, that you stay on the Watchtower as much as possible for now; recent events have left the general public indisposed to alien visitors, even ones they're already familiar with."

"Batman…" Kal growled in exasperation. This was clearly a topic they'd been discussing and disagreeing on for some time.

* * *

"There's one thing that's bugging me," Kara said as she floated down the hall, Kal at her side. "I'm positive I was sent away before you. So how is it you're… so much older, and I'm just arriving?" She hadn't talked much about the circumstances of her leaving Krypton. Most of it was due to simple stasis recuperation; the mind needed to get back into proper gear, neural pathways needed to re-open after extended disuse. But there were a few things she was absolutely sure of. The timing was just the only thing she felt ready to share.

"I actually may know just who to ask." Kal replied.

* * *

They flew at breakneck speeds through blinding white snow, over half-frozen waters. Kara was delighting in the sights around her.

"Extraneous heat from the core had melted the ice caps at the poles by the time either of us was even close to being born," Kara offered in explanation to Kal's questioning. "Our parents always talked about the caps, and snow. How they wished we could've seen it." Her mood went from somber to gleeful as they neared the mass of metal and crystal. "So, is this where the others are?" She asked.

"What others?" Kal asked, looking for all the world as if he had no idea what she was talking about.

"Very funny, Kal." She shot down ahead of him, the great door opening to her. She thought Kal was calling something to her, but she couldn't hear him over the wind. She'd been intentionally dampening her hearing ever since she left that city Kal lived in; she didn't much enjoy the sensory overload. She moved into the main hall of the great building, wondering if there was more below. There had to be. This one site couldn't possibly be holding everyone.

Around the corner, they came. Him, with his carefully crafted beard, and mouth and eyes wrinkled by smiles. Her, long dark curls flowing around a loving, wise face.

"Uncle Jor, Aunt Lara." Kara called, relief flowing through her. She dashed forward, feet leaving the ground as she inadvertently started flying.

Then she flew right through them. As if they weren't even there.

She fell out of the air in shock. Got numbly to her feet, the one possibility she hadn't even let herself consider crashing down on her. She reached, half-conscious of her actions, for her uncle's face. Her hand passed through his cheek.

"I'm so sorry, Kara." Jor-El said, profound sadness marring his face. She was barely aware that she could see Kal out of the corner of her eye, standing in the doorway, looking confused and hurting for her.

"No." She said, as if by saying it she could make it true. "No, no, no. No. This isn't… This wasn't what… What even…" She couldn't even think straight, couldn't say what she needed, had to say now. " _You had a plan!_ " She finally screamed, tears coming now as her ability to deny what had to be the truth broke. "You, and Dad and Mom. You had a plan. We," She waved her arm, pointing to herself, then Kal, who'd been inching closer with ever-growing concern on his face as she went on, "We were supposed to be the first wave. You were… You were supposed to follow. We… We can't be… You can't have…"

* * *

He could hear her rambling, claiming of plans and things that were supposed to be. Then she shot by him, as fast as he'd ever been, maybe faster, a trail of ice and snow following after her as she tore through the clouds with enough force to leave a gaping hole. He was about to follow when his father's image materialized in front of him.

"Let her go, Kal." Sorrow, something he was entirely unused to seeing on his father's face, consumed him. "If she's at all like I remember, she'll want to be alone for what comes next." Jor-El turned to look out the doorway with him. Silently watching.

"She'll be back." Lara's voice cut in on the other side of Jor, her arm snaking around her husband's shoulder, even though they couldn't truly feel each other any more. "She always comes back."

* * *

An hour later, they were proven right, as Kara stumbled back into the fortress. Her clothes were torn all over, and chunks of ice and rock were stuck in her hair and knuckles. She strode to the projections of Jor and Lara, fire burning in her eyes where tears still swam, waiting to fall.

"What happened?" She demanded.

 **An Idea (yep, with a capital I) hit me in the actual planning stages of this story that I knew I simply had to explore: What if Supergirl didn't know that everyone she knew and cared about (except her then-unborn cousin) died when Krypton was destroyed, because she was sent away (for reasons that will become clear) before Krypton exploded? The exact specifics of why she'd believe that are going to be explained in detail in the next chapter, with a crash course in this-fic-Krypton's final days. Also, a little detail that always bothered me once I really noticed it; in more modern superman stories (Smallville, Man of Steel, probably others that I just don't know about), Jor-El manages to digitize a copy of his consciousness and sends it along to Earth to guide Superman in his older years. But he apparently never asked his wife if she'd also be interested in being able to, in a manner of speaking, live beyond death through digitization and see the man their son grows up to be. Well, in this story, he DID ask her, and she obviously said yes, because who the hell wouldn't? So that's why Lara is in the Fortress of Solitude along with Jor-El.**

 **Also, fair warning to readers; length is not something I do with great consistency. I aim for specific moments or beats within a chapter, and however many words it takes me to reach that moment (And usually end on a nice cliffhanger or lead-in if I can manage it) is how long the chapter is. I'm also desperately searching for work at the moment, and the only reason I can put out chapters so fast right now is because it's the weekend and I'm riding high on finally getting back into the fan fiction scene after almost a year (I'd honestly almost forgotten how good it feels to post stories here). This is not an update schedule precedent; I get chapters done when I get them done. Partly for my own sanity, and partly because I have, over the years, developed standards of quality my past self (and especially my early writer self) wouldn't have slipped by on. I want to give you readers quality material, and that takes time.**


	3. Chapter 3-History and Keepsakes

**Note: So, this is gonna be a big exposition dump, courtesy of the SuperParents, though honestly Jor-El's gonna be doing most of the heavy lifting. It's not gonna be completely exposition. Just mostly. Fair warning.**

 **I do not own Young Justice, nor any characters therein. Please review, comment, or criticize construsctively. Most of all, enjoy.**

* * *

The Last Daughter

Chapter 3

History and Keepsakes

* * *

"The beginning of the end started with the loss of Kandor," Jor-El began, gesturing for Kara to sit down on one of the steps. "There were adverse affects on the geophysical scale, for one. A large portion of the planet, down to the core itself, had simply disappeared. Krypton had lost a great deal of structural integrity, and the destabilization of the core accelerated as a result. We were barely able to launch Kal's pod in time, our own estimates were so out of date." The hologram cast a sorry look towards Superman. He'd never gone into these details with him. Even as a facsimile of the man they'd happened to, it was still a deep wound for him and Lara.

"So there's even more to blame him for." Kara said, anger seeping into her voice.

"Some blame falls to him, yes," Jor admitted. "But not all." He sighed, and ran his hand over his face. It was strange how advanced his systems were. That even though he knew what he was, he couldn't break the habits he'd had when he was truly alive.

"What none of us truly realized early on," Lara cut in, giving Jor some breathing room. "Was what the loss of Kandor meant. The majority of the High Council; industrial centers, civic centers; major stocks of our last resources; some of the brightest minds on the planet. We were thrown into disarray, and what was left of the Council couldn't maintain order, couldn't decide on proper courses of action."

"But… You all had a plan," Kara insisted. "You two, and Dad and Mom. Mass evacuation before the core completely destabilized. Half the council was on-board…" She stopped as realized what she'd just said, in light of what she'd just been told.

"Support for the plan waned in light of the losses, and Zor's hijacking of project resources to save you didn't sit well with those who survived." Lara reached down, like Jor forgetting in the moment what she was. Her hand passed through Kara's shoulder, breaking into disjointed hololgrams. "Debate as to the proper course dragged on for months, until…" She didn't go on. Jor understood why. What was next was going to be even harder for Kara to hear.

"Until what?" Kara asked.

"Until Zod." Jor admitted. "He drew what remained of the military to him, and attempted to lead a coup against the remnants of the Council. The resulting civil war consumed or destroyed what few resources we had left, as well as any time needed to build and fuel ships. Even if the Councilors who survived had agreed to support us, evacuation on any major scale had become an impossibility." Kara drew her knees up and curled her arms around them. Jor had to resist the urge to reach out to her again.

"What happened to Zod?" Kara asked after several seconds of tense silence.

"He and his surviving sub-commanders were sentenced to the Phantom Zone." Kara sucked in a breath through clenched teeth. "I'm sor-"

Kara strode up from her seat, walking right through Lara to the nearest wall, and drove her fist against it. The room shook.

"I can't believe he would've done something so…" Kara sucked in a shaky breath as tears started flowing. "What am I saying? Of course I can believe he'd do exactly that."

* * *

"Why did it take me so long?" She asked. "I was sent away months, at least, before Kal was. And he's been here long enough to, what, grow up and start a family?" She didn't notice Superman raise his eyebrows, nor the questioning looks Jor and Lara directed his way briefly.

"I've honestly been wondering on that topic since Kal informed us," Jor admitted. "By rights, you should've have been here long before now. But now that your ship has finally arrived, I can see if I was right in what I assumed happened." His projection rose, and reached into open space, beams of light coalescing before his fingers.

"What are-" Kara began to ask.

"Pulling your ship's flight logs. It wasn't hard to locate remotely, there are only three places in the solar system now with Kryptonian technology."

"You can access those systems remotely? Her ship is being stored in the most secure facility on the planet." Superman asked, partly astonished, partly concerned.

"Kal, we'd surpassed that level of technology centuries before I was even born. Humans weren't even evolved to the point where they knew to live in caves." Jor explained as though it were the most obvious fact. He reached with his other arm, and a similar wave of light began forming. He tossed both waves up, and they shifted, transforming into rough models of the galaxy, lines mapping paths through star systems. "Now this," Jor pointed to the model on his left, "Is Kal's flight path." A fairly straight shot, with some curving allowances for what were marked as nearing-supernova-stage stars, black holes, or planets with excessive gravity. "The other is Kara's." A less direct pattern, that seemed to curve around or stretch out in various areas. "Did your father program your flight path?" Jor asked.

"Of course he did. He based it off of the data you all had, but he coded it in himself." Kara replied, obviously wondering where this was going.

"That explains it." Jor said, a wistful look passing over his face. "All due respect to Zor, but he never quite grasped interstellar travel and astrophysics the way I did. He even admitted as much to me once, during one of our late-night sessions checking data from our deep space probes." Jor waved a hand, and Kara's map fractured and zoomed in to multiple areas. "These are areas I intentionally tried to keep Kal's ship clear of. Supermassive black holes, large planets with intense gravitational fields. Objects with enough power to throw off a person's relativistic timeline in regards to the rest of the galaxy."

"You're going to have to explain that one a bit more, Uncle Jor." Kara said, smiling. She'd hadn't realized until then how much she missed these sorts of talks, even if she couldn't always fully grasp what her uncle and father tried to explain to her.

"Gravity distorts space, and it distorts time. By passing along objects with high gravity, your own passage of time was slowed compared to that of everything else around you. An half hour here, for instance," Jor pointed to a indicator for a black hole, "Would be at least a year or three beyond its range of distortion." Kara held her hand over her mouth, shoulders shaking. For a moment, Jor was worried that this, of all things, had somehow broken her completely.

Then her hand fell, and he could see the smile on her face, hear the laughter coming from her.

"I'm sorry," She said, "It's just… He was actually _terrible_ at something. And for it to be _this_ , what we were literally all counting on… and he got it so wrong I was late by a couple decades."

* * *

"He's not, exactly, my son, y'know." Kal said as they flew back into the airlock. The fortress had zeta tubes, but Kara admitted she enjoyed the flight. So Kal indulged her.

"What do you mean, 'not exactly?'" Kara asked.

"It's not really my place to say. If he wants to tell you, he will." Kara mused on that bit of information. What else could that young boy who looked so much like him be?

"So you're not…?" She questioned, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Well, I mean, I'm not saying that… Uh…" Kal's expression grew suspicious at the smirk growing on her face. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

"Oh, immensely." Kara admitted.

A loud sound of shifting metal, followed by an even louder banging and ringing, hit her ears, coming from the direction of the labs. Where her ship was being stored.

"Bart!" She heard a voice she wasn't familiar with yell. She could tone down her hearing, but not enough that she couldn't not hear far more than most probably assumed she could.

"Hey, I didn't do it!" She heard a younger voice, the fast one, she thought she recalled, exclaim. "I mean, not on purpose."

"If you broke it-"There was intense warning in the woman's tone.

"Let me just…" The boy's voice trailed off. "Oh man. Now THAT is crash."

Kara decided to take the initiative, and flew with all speed to the labs. She came through the doors to see the boy and a young woman, around her age, with blonde hair and an orange armored jumpsuit, gathered around a panel that had slid out of the back of her ship.

"What did you…" Kara couldn't keep speaking as she came around the ship and saw what he'd released.

Resting on a large sheet of metal was a suit of armor. A deep blue metal formed most of the suit, with red outlines and contours along many edges. Kara could just make out the more basic battle-fabric suit contained within, and the ceremonial cape already affixed to the latches. The symbol of the House of El, in the traditional colors, stood proud, carved into the center of the chest-piece.

She couldn't believe it. She reached out, hesitant to touch it, as if it would disappear the second she made contact. Her fingers grazed the center of the House symbol. She took an unsteady breath, as the horrible reality she'd learned that day clashed with everything the suit represented, what it's very existence still meant. She felt tears begin to build in her eyes, but even she didn't know if they were of sorrow or joy.

"Kara," Of course Kal had followed. "What's wrong?" he asked, clearly another question coming in his head that he felt he maybe shouldn't ask as he reached her and saw the suit.

"It's a," Kara had to pause, taking in a shaky breath. "It's a warsuit. A traditional gift to Kyrptonians who've passed the examinations and been accepted into the military." Her hands, unbidden, traced down the armor, feeling every inch they could. "I'd just finished the examinations, with… with Zod as my advisor and instructor." She had to stop again at that, remembering what he'd done for her, trying to reconcile the man who'd seemed every inch the perfect, honorable warrior, with the man who'd single-handedly doomed Krypton with a pointless civil war, and was now locked in a literal half-life dimension forever. "It took at least a month for results to be calculated, and I'd had to leave before they came in. But Dad, he was so certain I'd made it, so proud of me regardless of what could happen, he… he told me that same night that he'd already had the suit commissioned, before I'd even taken the examination. I didn't know he'd… loaded it in… I didn't think it was even ready." This was good, she finally decided. It was wonderful. She'd seen already, with the fortress and the projections of her aunt and uncle, that Krypton wasn't completely gone. Its history, technology, culture; these had all, by some miracle, managed to outlast the planet itself. And the people had, too. Not many. But there was more of everything now than anyone had suspected, she realized. Now that she was here. With the ship and suit her father had made for her.

* * *

 **So yeah, taking some major liberties with Krypton's history, and probably a bit of its culture too. For those in the know about what Kandor means, it's going to come up again. Not quite in the most classic sense of the usage initially, but it's coming up again.**

 **As far as the changes here, this is mostly me projecting over a lot of problems I've really always had with the Superman/SuperEverybody origin. If Jor-El and his brother were smart enough to know the planet was going to explode, and they were smart enough to be able to build ships to get their kids out of dodge, why the hell wouldn't they try and do that for, y'know, as many other people on the planet as they could? Answer: they absolutely would, and that's what they were always going to do. Monkeywrenches just railroaded their way into their plans for mass evacuation, from the loss of a big chunk of planet speeding up the destruction of the planet, to ineffectual politicians to a civil war. Kara's origin on travelling to Earth is also something I tweaked a bit.**

 **My knowledge of the original story is minute, I admit, but my understanding is that it's either: Zor-El was so stupid when it came to space navigation he planned a route that took decades longer to complete from roughly the same starting point as Superman, or Kryptonite messed with the ship and made it late. Because it's always fucking Kryptonite. Thus, my poor-man's-astrophysics explanation; Zor-El's not-quite-as-good-but-not-unbelievably-stupid route sent Kara past a bunch of space-things with high enough gravity to disrupt her relative time (anyone see Interstellar? It's basically that same thing as with the water planet, where they get stuck down there for a couple hours, but almost 27 years have passed everywhere else because relativity is a right bitch like that). So, because she hit a bunch of relativistic roadblocks/speed bumps on her flight, she arrives on Earth decades after Superman, despite actually being sent away earlier.**

 **Zod being not always totally evil and fascist, and a personal instructor to Kara, is going to be mentioned again, as will her suit and her technical background in Krypton's military as a soldier-in-training-almost. It's both a way of distinguishing her and her actual Kryptonian tech and experience from Superman's Earth ways/stuff (barring the Fortress of Solitude, that is) and Ma-and-Pa-Kent-made suit . And because it's just badass.**


	4. Chapter 4- Public Relations Part 1

**Note: So, an idea hit me in the planning stages of this story. An idea that was half-filler until we hit the major bits with the actual villain of the story (because their introduction was always going to have to be sudden in execution no matter how it was done, so it was always a question of how long do I wait to do that), half essential characterization for this version of Supergirl. So strap in for some essential characterization filler for the next chapter or two, everybody!**

* * *

The Last Daughter

Chapter 4

Public Relations Part 1

* * *

"The League haven't even told us who or what this new alien is, but anyone can see the truth clear as day. She's a threat." Kara frowned to herself as footage ran of her accidental rampage through Kal's city. She'd heard later that she'd managed not to kill anyone on accident. A few people had been hospitalized, but nothing too major.

"Why are you watching that crap?" Kara turned to see Superboy walking towards her. She hadn't yet asked him exactly who he was in relation to Kal. She didn't feel they knew each other well enough for that question to be proper. "Godfrey's a cheap hack at best, and a shill for the Light at worst." He saw that Kara had no idea who he was talking about. "They're this bunch of supervillains, been causing trouble for, well, as long as I've been alive. Longer, even."

"I'm not disagreeing that he's inflammatory," Kara admitted as the footage cut back to the suited man, who picked his rant up again. "But he's not entirely wrong either. I was a danger then. I'm still a danger now, I just don't want to be one. And from what Kal's told me, he's representative of how a lot of the planet feels now about visitors from other worlds."

"Pretty open-minded of you." Superboy said, giving her a surprised look.

"Mom and Dad and Z... I was always taught to look at all points of view, especially the ones I may not agree with. To look for the value." Kara didn't like that she kept catching herself when it came to Zod.

"So what value do see in this guy?" Superboy waved to the TV mounted into the wall.

"I see fear. I see that people down there don't know me. They don't know what I can do or what I want or where I came from. They just know that some strange girl crashed in a spaceship, smashed up a city, and that their most famous hero boxed her up and took her somewhere."

"So what are you gonna do about it?" Superboy asked. It sounded like he didn't really expect an answer. So Kara took some satisfaction from turning to him with a wide smile on her face.

"I've got a few ideas."

* * *

"No." Batman's tone brooked absolutely no room for debate.

"I really think it would help. If I could make some sort of personal public announcement, maybe even try and talk this Gordon into an-" Kara tried to explain herself as Batman strode through the station, and she followed close behind. While technically, she'd been told that the organization Kal was a part of voted on major events regarding planetary security and membership, she could easily tell who carried how much weight in reality. Batman was significant. If she could convince him, getting everyone else to agree would be easy.

"Engaging in that sort of dialogue gives people like Godfrey a level of power and validation they don't need or deserve. The last thing the League needs is Superman's cousin engaging him in a debate on international television," They moved out of the labs, and started heading towards the transporter (Kara knew there was a proper name for them, but she couldn't keep it in her head for some reason) room in the center of the station. "More to the point, efforts are already underway to build a cover identity for you, to allow easy integration onto Earth when you're off-duty. Assuming you join of course. Going public now like you're suggesting completely-" He stopped short as Kara shot in front of him, floating up off the ground and reaching eye level.

"With all due respect, that's not happening." She said, trying to keep her voice steady.

"If you don't want to join the Team or League, that's entirely understandable. All the more reason to get-"

" _I am not hiding who I am_." She said, perhaps a bit louder than she meant to. She could feel the room freeze, and every eye turn towards the two of them. She realized that she was probably doing something very few people did, by arguing with Batman. "I am Kara Zor-El of Krypton. And that's all I will ever be."

"Cover identities are a necessity even for those of who are less active in protecting Earth or with superpowers. It's a safeguard-" Batman tried to push the issue, his tone again making it clear he expected no resistance. She was going to have to disappoint him.

"I've buried almost everyone and everything I've ever known," Kara cut in. "My home. My friends. My parents. My world. All I've got left is Kal, my ship, and who. I. Am." Kara took a steadying breath. "I'm not burying that, too." She turned in the air and floated off, making sure to go slow to emphasize her point.

* * *

"Tell me you're gonna wear the crash suit." Kid Flash asked. It was easier to try and remember everyone by their hero names, at least for now.

"Wasn't planning to. I'm trying to convince your planet that I'm not a threat, that I want to live here peacefully and help where I'm needed. Coming out in full war armor is gonna undercut my point a little."

"Well, you can't just wear regular clothes. You do know that, right? No way anyone will believe anything you say if you're just wearing what Conner wears all the time." Tigress asked her.

"I'm aware." Kara replied, smirking. "You'll see what I've got planned. I'll meet you all in the… zeta room." The word finally came to her.

She slid the door to her temporary quarters shut. She'd dragged the warsuit in from the labs. To be sure, wearing the full suit would absolutely send the wrong message. She was trying to convince a planet's worth of frightened people whom she'd already made a poor first impression on that they could trust her. That she was no danger to them. But there was another reason. One she didn't want to tell anyone else. She wasn't ready to wear the warsuit. Wasn't ready to take on the burden and responsibility and all that came with the last remnant of Krypton's culture, and all that such a particular relic implied and stood for.

Fortunately, she'd realized, she could compromise on that front. She wasn't ready to stand for all that Kyrpton and the warsuit stood for, and she knew that. But someone else on Earth had spent a lifetime making another suit stand for things she was ready for. Probably. Maybe.

* * *

"Can't believe I let her talk me into this." Batman muttered to himself.

"As I recall, there wasn't much talking you into anything," Superman said, a smile on his face. Everyone in the Watchtower had been astounded and more than a little satisfied to see Batman inadvertently get a taste of his own medicine when it came to arguing. "She told you exactly how things were going to happen, and didn't let you argue otherwise."

"And you think all of this is a good idea?" Batman asked incredulously.

"It's her life. No one can tell her how to live it, and I don't think what she wants out of it is at all unreasonable, considering what she's been through." He turned his attention as he saw other members of the League and Team shift towards the pathway to the quarters. Kara floated in, and let herself land lightly. Superman guessed she'd pulled her clothing out of her warsuit, and it honestly shocked him how similar, yet different their suits were.

A blue bodysuit, with red boots, a cape that locked in to latches built into the collar, and dark blue metal vambraces wound over her forearms. Segmenting lines, probably meant to help it fit into the armor, ran in red highlights throughout the whole form. Superman could see the material was not like any on Earth, and even the scheme of colors wasn't entirely exact. The blue was deeper, darker. The yellow portions seemed almost gilded, the reds muted by comparison.

Kara was clearly not quite expecting all the attention directed her way, nor the effect the suit was having on everyone else in the room. A sense of approval permeated the zeta bay. He walked towards her, and set a hand on her shoulder when they reached each other.

"You look good." He said.

* * *

She approached the podium in front of the building Kal called the Hall of Justice, trying to look far more confident than she actually felt. The press below, cameras flashing, microphones at the ready. She knew it was her idea, but that didn't stop the fact that to think she could do this, and actually doing it, were two very different things.

She tapped the microphones set into the podium, and winced at the feedback. She winced, and drawing on her speed, took a glance back at Kal, standing at the front of the entire assembled Justice League. He nodded.

"Now you can say it really does happen to everyone." Kara opened, her need to break the tension running ahead of her actual plans. But she could see it worked regardless. See the smiles coming to the crowd's faces, hear the chuckles covered by hands. "I imagine it's accurate to say that most, if not all of you, have at least seen me by now. I recognize I didn't make the best first impression when I got to this world, and I apologize for that." She shifted her grip on the podium, taking a breath. "You've all seen me. But I can't imagine you know me. That's what I'm here today to change. I am Kara Zor-El, of Krypton. Cousin to men you know as Superman and Superboy." She paused to gather herself, and could hear the chatter in the crowd. Some believed her. Some didn't. "I don't expect you to take me on faith. Not because of what I can do, who I say I am, who I say I'm related to," She laughed to herself and pulled at the battle suit. "Or because of what I wear." That got some outright laughs from the crowd. "If you are willing to give me the chance, I will do all I can to prove myself to you." She took another breath. "When I learned that my cousin, the older one," She clarified to a few more chuckles, "Had become a defender of this world, I thought it was wonderfully ironic. I mean, I can see it now, but when I left our world, he hadn't even been born. And I'd always imagined him following in his parents' footsteps, and in those of my parents. Becoming a great thinker, a teacher, a person of exceptional knowledge, who would put their mind towards solving the great problems of their time. My family had a terrible problem to try and solve. Our world was dying. They had to try and figure out how to save it, and then how to save all of us when they realized there was nothing they could do for the world itself."

She stopped at that, at voicing that hopeful dream, what should have been. Uncle Jor and Aunt Lara should've been standing beside their son; Krypton's many survivors should've been living side by side with the people of Earth for decades. "I myself pursued a different path. I wanted to become a protector of Krypton. A warrior. A soldier. A peacekeeper. My family and the man who would train me all asked: Why? Why become a guardian of a dying world that you will have to either leave or die with?" She couldn't help herself now. She could feel a tear track down her cheek. But she let it sit. "And I told them, that it was because our world was dying, it was all the more important it have defenders, so it could survive to be saved. That it dying made standing in its defense all the more meaningful." She felt another tear drop, and now she had to reach to wipe them away. "It wasn't to be that simple, sadly. Invaders and pettiness and stupidity kept my people from being able to save themselves. Now my cousins and I are all that is left." She paused to relax her grip on the podium. She didn't to crush it between her hands on live tv. "And just as it was true when I was pursuing my path, that guarding a dying world was all the more important, so is that true for us now, as the last sons and daughters of Kyrpton. It falls to us to be the greatest paragons of virtue that we can be, in honor of the world we have lost. To ensure that the light and greatness of our people did not die out with our world." She reached down to tug on her suit again, shifting the House symbol down slightly, and into greater view of the cameras. "I'm told that on this world, this symbol is an S. It's how my cousin got his second name. But on Kyrpton, it was the symbol of the House of El. A great family that produced even greater warriors, thinkers, scientists and leaders for over a thousand generations. And the symbol they took, in our language, means Hope. Within that ideal of Hope, everlasting, was the fundamental belief in the potential of every living being to be a force for good. That's what I wanted to be. And what I still want to be, if you'll give me the chance to try."

* * *

 **So, a bunch of ideas really kicked this off. First, Kara would absolutely need to make a public statement and would absolutely get eaten alive by the press and Godfrey beforehand after her arrival and accidental rampage in Chapter 1. But those realities also present great opportunity for characterization. As far as the argument with Batman, the SuperKids (Superboy, Supergirl) are great for being vehicles to buck comic book tropes. Superboy refuses to wear a supersuit because seriously, what's the point? It's not like it'll make his powers any stronger if he's in spandex. Why not just wear what he's comfortable in while he beats up supervillains? Supergirl, in this instance, is bucking against the Rule-of-God that just about every superhero ever must have a secret identity that they use to interact with the world when they aren't superhero-ing. And Kara, understandably I think, considering her situation, just says 'Screw. That. I'm Kara Zor-El and I don't want or need to hide who I am.'**

 **As far as Kara's suit, I was trying to get across the similar-but-different idea. Her suit is 100% Kryptonian in origin, unlike Superman's (I'm running with the classic idea that his supersuit is based around his Kryptonian baby clothes, but made nonetheless of Earth-based materials), and thus has a vast difference in terms of materials and some in terms of style (like the muted reds and gold tint to the yellow areas). It's nature as a suit built explicitly for soldiers (it's the interior, emergency-use-battle-suit of the actual armored warsuit, basically) also means it's going to have features Superman's suit doesn't, like the segmented inlays for fitting on the armor, and the vambraces. It'd also take Darksied or Doomsday to make the reference for a Battle-Damaged Supergirl action figure in this case, because her suit is also explicitly made to be able to tank hits and take the edge off major hits.**


	5. Chapter 5- Public Relations Part 2

**Note: So, the second half of Public Relations is going to be the equivalent of a montage of superheroics and reactions therein. Prep yourselves if you can't stand montages. It's also going to be serving as a lead-in to the real main event, so get ready for some fights, angst, and narrative bombs in the next couple chapters before things _really_ kick off.**

 **I do not own Young Justice. Please review, comment, or criticize constructively. Most of all, enjoy.**

* * *

The Last Daughter

Chapter 5

Public Relations Part 2

* * *

"Mayday, mayday! This is Ferris flight 294! We've experienced catastrophic engine-" Danvers was cut off by what sounded like a series of explosions. Had to be the other engines going, probably taking the plane with them. Or at least any chance of them salvaging this nightmare. He shut his eyes.

He felt Tom slapping his arm after a few seconds. "What?" He asked, angrily. Tom pointed to the cockpit window.

Kneeling on the nose of the plane was Supergirl, and… the window was… carved into.

'CAUGHT EVERYONE WHO GOT SUCKED OUT. PUT THEM BACK IN, BUCKLED THEM DOWN.' Danvers read on the first line, etched into the glass. 'WHERE DO YOU NEED ME TO SUPPORT AND SLOW THE PLANE?'

He could only gape at the sight. The girl rolled her eyes, leaned forward, and touched a finger to the glass, her arm moving so fast he couldn't follow it.

'JUST YELL IT. I'LL HEAR YOU.' Danvers took a few seconds to actually think, about what they needed to somehow survive this.

"The left side is off-center, dropping from the lost engine. We don't hit evenly, we'll get sucked down. Try and level us out and slow us down as much as you can." He yelled as loudly as he could. She gave him a thumbs up, let herself drift up off the nose, then shot to the side where the engines had exploded. He could feel the effects of her efforts immediately. The plane titled in midair, evening out more than he ever could've made it.

* * *

"And for those just tuning in, we're providing new information on the engine failure in Ferris Airlines flight 294. The left engine of the plane exploded mid-flight over the pacific ocean." The newscaster spoke. "According to pilot Adam Danvers, it was only thanks to the sudden action of Supergirl-"

"How'd you even know to be there?" Artemis asked.

"Honestly? I love flying. And just… seeing everything here. The oceans, the forests, just… all of it. Everything on Krypton that wasn't in conservatories had either died or been stripped away by the time I was born. I just heard the explosion and figured I ought to check it out, because nothing good ever happens where there are explosions."

"I'd say wait till you see the Fourth of July in Gotham, but that really won't do much to change your opinion of explosions."

* * *

An eight-foot tall ginger with shoulders half as broad as he was tall, his muscles so engorged they were tearing through his skin in spots, smashed through the steel security doors.

"Huh." Kara said, looking him up and down. "I got this guy." She said, confidently.

"What, all by yourself?" Conner asked as he threw a goon against a wall.

"Depends. All I know for sure is this guy looks like he might be the first real fight I've had since I got here." The big guy didn't appreciate her attitude, and let out a bellow that shook the room.

Kara took off from her standing position into a flying dropkick that sent him barreling back down the hall he'd come from, smashing through two walls on his way.

"Or, maybe not." Kara said, disappointment coloring her voice.

* * *

"I would like to know where you get off." He said.

"Excuse me?" Kara asked in response, clearly doing her best to not simply storm away from the man.

"What do you think gives you the right to ignore international law and act unilaterally of any Earth-based authority?" Godfrey asked. He tapped a button on the remote in his hand, and the screen behind them changed to recorded video.

Men, women, and children were being thrown out of the homes by men carrying rifles and machines guns. A jeep with a mounted machine gun was visible at the edge of the small village the soldiers were clearly raiding. Screams, of the soldiers and their obvious victims, inundated the feed, punctuated or started by the sounds of gunshots and breaking doors.

Then they were all drowned out by a sonic boom.

Supergirl almost crashed into the center of the village, sending two of the soldiers flying through the air with backhanded swipes. She turned swiftly, firing short bursts of almost white-hot heat vision from her eyes, targeting the weapons of most of the soldiers. In seconds, she was charging through them, knocking them senseless with quick kicks or punches. The mounted gun at the far back end of the village started firing at her. She simply shot towards it and sent it tumbling end over end with a vicious kick to the bumper. After she'd ripped the mounted gun off with one hand, dragging the man firing it along.

"While there is an undeniable humanitarian crisis in that region, do you honestly think you are in any way qualified to just intervene?" Godfrey asked, pausing the video with a tap of the remote. Supergirl visibly took a breath. "The United Nations is considering action, but no motions have passed, and the borders are officially sealed. So why do you think you can supersede-"

"I'm not going to claim that I understand all the ins and outs of that country, or politics on this world, Mr. Godfrey. I'm also not going to even entertain the idea that I can supersede or just ignore any leaders on Earth." She cut in. "But you, I, and the whole world knows all too well by know what the United Loyalist Army does to anyone who isn't a part of their organization. An organization that is considered a terror group by the acting government and four neighboring countries, I might add. So if you're going to sit there and ask why would I allow innocent people to suffer and die in ways I've been told I can't actually talk about on broadcast, I have to question your priorities if my stopping that is what's got you angry."

* * *

"He did not like any of that." Kal said as Kara watched the recording again. Clearly, 'He' was referring to Batman in this case. She grunted in response. "What's your impression of Godfrey?"

"We need to be keeping a much closer eye on him." Kara said immediately, watching the screen with steely eyes. "When I was talking to him, I felt like I wanted to just… agree to everything he said. Even though he was… I had to make an effort to say, to even think what I really wanted to. I don't think he's entirely human. And if he's hiding that fact, he's hiding it for a reason that's bigger than that would make him a hypocritical news pundit."

* * *

"I have to say, I really wish we could have done this a lot sooner." Martha said, passing the dish to Kara. She couldn't believe it when the girl had offered to help, but she also appreciated it.

"I do, too. It's really," she snorted and looked somewhat ashamed. "It's really my fault. Supergirl, the public cousin of Superman, can't exactly just pop in on the Kents anytime she wants."

"What, and you think it'd be easier with one of those secret identities all those other supertypes think is so important?" Martha asked. "Let me tell you, Jonathan and I thought it was ridiculous when Clark said he'd be keeping it all secret, and our opinions on that haven't changed. Everything he and his friends do for the world, and half the time his boss is railing at him because work is late because he had to stop an alien invasion or some such."

She sighed, passing a plate as Kara set the dish aside, having scrubbed it clean. "I know there are risks. I know Clark has enemies. Just comes with the territory when you do what he does. But I'd gladly shoulder those risks if it meant just about everyone in the world knew who they really had to thank, if it meant he didn't have to hide a part of himself." Kara set the plate aside, and took the next Martha passed her.

"I wanted to thank you," She said. "For taking him in." She smiled to herself. "That was actually going to be my job; looking after him until Uncle Jor and Aunt Lara arrived with the rest of the evacuation ships."

"Well, I'm glad to hear they actually did have a plan on that. Clark never talks about that much. I can't say I blame him." She sighed to herself, and reached around the girl's shoulder. "God, I'm sorry. I can't even imagine what it must be like for you."

"Thank you," Kara said, earnestly. "It hasn't been easy, I'll admit. But I think I've-" Something in her pocket beeped loudly. She pulled some sort of phone out, set it on the countertop. She tapped a button and a image projected upwards.

A dark-skinned young man was swinging what looked like maces made of water at something that was out of frame.

"Supergirl," the man said. "The Watchtower is under attack. We need-" He was cut off as something dove at him. Martha saw a flash of metal and glowing yellow strands, a face like some sort of demonic skull cast in steel, before the picture broke to static.

Martha almost didn't register the sound of the plate shattering against the floor. Kara stumbled back, her eyes wide, her face showing panic on a level Martha didn't think was possible. Her mind clearly running a million miles a second to places Martha didn't even want to imagine. Her breath was coming in short, heavy bursts through her nose.

"No," she whispered to herself. The fear in her voice chilled Martha to the bone. "No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no," she kept repeating to herself as she moved backward, almost on auto-pilot. She hit a wall and slumped down, one hand reaching to cover her mouth. Martha moved towards her, reaching slowly as she knelt down. She could see tears building in the girl's eyes.

"Kara, listen," She started softly, "Whatever is this, you can beat-" She stopped as she felt the air heave behind her. Clark, of course, and the pounding steps behind him had to be Jonathan.

"Kara, we need to…" Clark, his top half already partway into costume, stopped as he saw the girl. "What's wrong?" He asked.

"I don't know," Martha said, turning to him. "That messenger thing turned on, she saw it, next thing I know she's..." Martha gestured, helplessly.

"Well, just keep eye on-Mom, move!" Clark suddenly yanked her to one side, and she couldn't tell why until she looked back at Kara. Her face had shifted. Gone was the horrible reminiscing, replaced with the sort of fury no one that young should ever have to feel. The girl's eyes looked like they were… Martha realized her eyes _were_ actually glowing. She was just so used to that glow being red instead of a white-hot blue. She looked where she'd been standing, and saw a growing scorch mark on the wall.

Kara dropped her hand from her mouth, and Martha could see her teeth clenched so hard it was wonder they all weren't breaking on each other. She saw the girl start to rise, saw her mouth open and felt her ears get buffeted by the beginnings of a rage-filled scream.

Then, she was getting yanked against Clark's arms by a torrent of air. Looking down the hall, she could see the side door had been broken clean off its hinges, and she could just barely see half of it spinning off into the distance like it'd been fired from a giant gun. The other half she could see just fine; it was tearing a path through the corn field on that side of the house.

She ran out, Clark and Jonathan trailing her. Looking up, she could see the clouds that earlier had been pleasantly covering much of the sky, had been torn open. They were trailing after something moving faster than she could even comprehend.

* * *

 **One thing I honestly love about the Snyder DC movies is how absolutely insanely fast Superman is when we wants to be. And the rest of the Kyrptonians on Earth, too. That was something I was hoping to get across here; Kara, when she wants to, can move just brokenly fast. One of my favorite parts of the Identity Crisis story is when Superman is in Kansas, holding up a tractor for his dad to fix while he talks to Green Arrow at JL HQ on Earth, Green Arrow claims they aren't working fast or well enough. And before his sentence is even finished, Superman is right in front of him in full costume, looking insulted. I just love superspeed, honestly, and Kryptonians get it as part of their package power deal, so expect to see a lot Kara being just** _ **so fast**_ **now that we're entering into the main event.**

 **I had a lot of ideas for things I could do as part of the montage of superheroics (there was an idea for saving people from a burning building that didn't make the cut), but they're all important for Kara as a character. She likes exploring new things; she likes a good fight (that was Mammoth she dropkicked, in case you're wondering); she's willing to do what she thinks is right and she won't apologize for it. Also, saving a plane from disaster. Does it get more classic Superman? I will admit I pulled the 'writing on the glass with a finger' thing from Superman's Gods and Monsters short. Cause it's genius.**

 **The Kent House bit is something I'd had planned since maybe the second iteration of the general plan for this story. Not quite exactly as it went down (Supergirl almost inadvertently blasting Ma Kent because she's so distraught/furious she's losing her grip on her powers was a late addition), but I was always planning on that final bit of Supergirl just flying straight through the nearest door at top speed because she just does not care now that she knows who's coming.**

 **As to who exactly is attacking, and who's coming, that's going to be revealed…in time.**


	6. Chapter 6 - Things Unseen

**Note: As I said, we're getting into the main event now (or at least, starting to introduce the main event), so buckle in, everybody.**

 **I do not own Young Justice. Please review, comment, or criticize constructively.**

 **Most of all, enjoy.**

* * *

The Last Daughter

Chapter 6

Things Unseen

* * *

"Conner, what's wrong?" M'Gann asked, walking up to him. He was sitting in one of the side passages, looking through the glass down to Earth.

"Why do you assume anything's wrong?" He asked, guiding her down next to him, sitting against the wall. She smiled sadly at him.

"A whole level between you and everyone else, and we can all feel you brooding," She said. "How long has it been since that's happened?" Conner rubbed the back of his neck. "If you don't want to talk, that's fine. We can just, sit here." She offered.

"No," He sighed out. "I want…" He didn't continue. She slid one of her hands over his, clearly willing to wait as long as he needed. "It's Kara. I don't…" He stopped again. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do, anymore." He finally said.

"What do you mean?" M'Gann asked, not understanding what he meant.

"I always… I know I didn't have the healthiest view of myself in the early days," Conner admitted, "But even then, I still always knew where I stood. What I could be, what I brought to the Team." He took a breath, a shaky one. "But now?" He laughed to himself. "What am I now, M'Gann? What can I do or even be that she can't do better?" M'Gann could only gape at him in horror.

"Conner, that's not even-" Her righteous tirade for his sake was cut off, as the station shook beneath them and alarms began to sound.

"All Team members, any available members of the League, the Zeta chamber is under attack." Aqualad's voice rang out over the Watchtower's PA.

"Good." Conner said, rising. "I could use something to punch." He admitted darkly.

* * *

"M'Gann, look out!" Conner shouted in warning, too late. One of the drones wrapped its hands around her head from behind, and slammed her against the floor. With a cry of rage, Conner dove at it, and punched it in the face as hard as he could. It stumbled backwards, it's skull-like face dented, but still whole. What were these things made out of?

His chain of thought broke completely as it recovered and, with lightning speed, returned fire, punching him in the gut with such force it drove him to his knees. It grabbed him by his shirt, and seemed to be… preoccupied with the Superman logo on his chest. It raised its other hand, and its fingers came apart. Long, sharp strands of metal, more strands than the drone had fingers, slid out from the segments, and coiled into his nostrils, his ears. Two strands came apart into thousands of tiny fibers, and slid towards his eye sockets. Others reached down and simply poked through his shirt, digging into and through his chest. He started screaming from the pain as the first strands reached whatever it was in him they were going for.

He felt the station tremble beneath him, and suddenly the pain was gone. He dropped to the floor, the strands falling out of the holes they'd bored, the arm of the drone dropping to the ground in a rent piece, and looked around.

He faintly realized he couldn't hear everything that was going on. There was a gaping hole in the floor in front of him, where the drone had been, and he could faintly hear decompression alarms sounding in addition to the system alerting to security breaches as his hearing slowly returned. Then half the torso and head of the drone that had been on him bounced past him and was blasted with an all-too-familiar white-hot blue heat vision. But if he was being honest, that had been so painful he couldn't even be angry at…

Kara had another drone in her other hand, and was slowly crushing it's head like it was a tin can. He could see it reaching with strands from its remaining hand. But that wasn't what worried him. What worried him was Kara. The constant glow of heat vision building in her eyes, the tenseness of her whole body, the absolute rage on her face. Rage that clearly put any anger he'd ever felt to shame.

She screamed something at the top of her lungs in Kryptonian, then reached with her other hand and ripped the drone in half, driving her fingers through its head and simply pulling as hard as she could. The drones all moved from whomever they were fighting and made a beeline for her. Everyone else tried to take advantage of the distraction Kara had provided.

Kara didn't let them.

He'd never seen her; heck, he'd never even seen Superman move as fast as she did. Maybe the Flash, he conceded. He could barely even see her. All he knew was she kept charging at drones and leaving them pinned by her fists or feet against the floor or a wall, which she'd also punched a good-sized hole through, using her heat vision to melt away what parts of every drone she didn't just smash or tear to pieces.

In less than two minutes, the bots that had been giving the Team and a few lower-tier Leaguers more than a decent fight, she'd reduced to piles of scrap and molten metal. All except one, which she had in her hands. She ripped it in two and tossed the half with its head clear across the room. Conner didn't know if these drones were advanced enough to actually feel emotions; he knew Sphere's AI was. But he figured that even if the drones weren't on that level, they had to be feeling _something_ after that display. And given how the drone looked like it was actually trying to claw its way away from Kara, it wasn't feeling anything good.

"Supergirl, stand-" Aqualad began, only to be cut off. Kara let out a hate-filled scream and fired a blast of heat vision down the room, striking the drone straight in the head. She poured it on, the beam widening until it engulfed the drone's entire torso, and a bit of the floor. "Supergirl!" Aqualad yelled. She didn't stop. Didn't even acknowledge she could hear him. She kept the heat vision going, until Conner could tell she'd burned a hole straight through the floor.

Then she stopped. The beams flickered out, and the glow in her eyes faded. But she clearly wasn't any better. She was taking shuddering breaths through her nose, her hands were balling and releasing into fists every few seconds, and her eyes… they were drowned in such fury and terror. To an extent Conner didn't even know Kara was capable of.

"Where's the sensor room?" She demanded of no one in particular, her gaze still fixed on the hole she'd burned into the floor destroying the last drone.

"Supergirl," Aquald tried again, reaching out a calming hand. "Kara, we need-" He didn't finish. Kara shot towards him, reached out and seized a fistful of his shirt, dragging him off his feet and in front of her face.

"We don't. Have. Time. Where's the sensor room?" Her growling demand would've left Batman impressed, if not also concerned. There was a reason he could be so absolutely terrifying when he wanted to be, and everyone knew just enough about him to know it wasn't a good one.

"Fifth floor, third wing." Impulse offered weakly.

Conner barely saw Kara turn before his ears were assaulted by a sonic boom, and he couldn't see her anymore.

* * *

Static breathed a sigh of relief as the security lockdown lifted. Then he was scrambling away from the doors in panic as _something_ smashed clear through them and stopped in front of the control board. He was about to zap it when he realized it was Supergirl.

"Might wanna give a little warning next time, Supes." He grumbled, getting to his feet. She didn't respond. She just tapped away with superspeed at the control board. Holographic planets and representations of space popped up, signs she was initiating a encompassing scan. She just stood there, tapping her foot, arms folds over each other, looking more worried than he'd ever seen just about anyone look.

Finally, the scan finished. It pinpointed one contact, on the outskirts of Metropolis. Supergirl breathed a sigh of something close to relief.

"Keep repeating this scan every few minutes. If anything else comes up, send everyone you can at the contacts as quickly as possible." She said shortly, turning away from the board and blasting back through the doors, the sheer speed she was flying at curving the edges backwards.

* * *

The fight was already over by the time he reached her. Aqualad had called in, saying that she was pursuing a target that was at the outskirts of Metropolis, according to what she'd told Static. While Superman wasn't totally sure about the whole game of telephone going on with where Kara was, he'd already checked the Watchtower. He'd apparently just missed a frightening display from her in there. And judging by what he could see as he approached, that was equally true again.

Kara was kneeling in front of a burning ship, made from a metal he didn't recognize. Destroyed robots, in hundreds of pieces or molten puddles, surrounded the craft. He recognize that Kara was kneeling in front of another drone, still roughly intact; it's limbs had all been torn off.

"I don't know if you can hear me," He heard her say. "But on the chance that you're still hooked in to all your little helpers, I have this to say." She took a shuddering breath, and continued. "You didn't get all of us. My cousin survived. _I_ survived. We're still here, and if you thought we put up a fight before, you haven't seen anything yet. So let me tell you, in no uncertain terms, what'll happen. If you come here, come anywhere near this planet, or any other planet in this system, I'm going to come for you. And I swear to Rao that I won't stop until one of us is dead." Her eyes lit up and heat vision blasted into the drone's face, melting it into slag.

She stood up, breathing heavily. Then she finally seemed to realize he was there. She turned to look at him.

"I guess there are some things I need to tell you." She admitted.

* * *

 **That there hasn't been a section from Kara's perspective proper in basically two chapters is very much intentional, in case anyone was wondering. I'd also tell everyone to pay attention to Superboy here; this is the start of what will be (depending on how much of the multi-story overall story I can get out before Season 3 comes out, but it'll be at the very tail end) a very long game of character subplot. It'll also obviously factor into this particular story, too.**

 **So, Kara's going to give some answers in the next chapter on just why she went so ballistic, and what/who is coming for Earth in the near future. Who she's also sworn to kill. Wait'll you see how that works out for her *** **rubs hands together on my throne in my evil lair***


	7. Chapter 7-Remembrance

**Note: So, been busy lately, cause it's the holidays. Last-minute shopping, accidentally charging myself a hundred bucks for Amazon Prime to try and get those last-minute gifts here in time for Christmas (don't try to game the Prime shipping system, kids. They've got your number). Also, admittedly, planning out this chapter. There's a lot I wanted to put here, and planning out what to put where and what needed to go elsewhere entirely (or just get cut altogether) was a struggle. But this is it, everybody. The big bad of the story is about to be revealed. Not exactly present personally, but revealed.**

 **I do not own Young Justice. Please review, comment, or criticize constructively. Most of all, enjoy.**

* * *

The Last Daughter

Chapter 7

Remembrance

* * *

"We didn't know what it was when we made first contact. We didn't know what it wanted." Kara said, standing before the entirety of the League and Team, gaze fixed on the floor. "We could tell immediately that it was more advanced technologically than anything we'd ever seen. Even anything we'd been able to make ourselves. It went about as well for us as it did for all of you. But we assumed that the scouts it sent were the end of it all. We were wrong."

* * *

 _Kara stumbled out of the strike craft. They hadn't been able to evade the aerial drones, and had crashed a few blocks from the command center. Zod had warned the recruits that defending forces had nothing even resembling secure perimeters. He couldn't even guarantee that the command center would still be there by the time they reached the position he had been given. But they'd agreed to go anyway._

 _"Sound off." She vaguely heard Tal-Vor call. Her ears were still ringing. "Sound-" He was drowned out by the screeching of tearing metal, and the winding of strands that had become all too familiar to everyone in Kandor._

 _Kara scrambled, unsteadily, to her feet, looking for a weapon. Her rifle had flown clear out the window several blocks before the crash. She could hear Tal firing. Hear the strands dig through his armor. Hear his screams._

 _She realized, and kicked herself, that she still had her sidearm. She ran around the side to the cockpit, and started firing as soon as she saw the drone hunched over Tal. The drone turned its head around entirely, yellow lines of data running through its eye sockets. It loosened its free hand and fired a blast of jagged energy at her. She dove to one side and kept firing, aiming for the head. She was doing some damage, but not enough. Tal's screams stopped, and the drone rose, turning the rest of its body around, a energy shield projecting from its chest now that it could face her. Slowly, almost leisurely, it approached her._

 _The rest of the survivors came around the ship, and started firing as they saw the drone. They'd been able to find heavier guns, and were starting to blast and melt away the drone's head._

 _Its back folded outwards, and a blinding flash lit the street. Where Tal had been laying, incoherent but still alive, was nothing but a patch of red hot ground. The drone's back shifted out of a seemingly cannon-like shape, but it was still too late for it. The concentrated fire finally blew its head off._

 _"Zor-El!" One of the other recruits called. "You alright?" She was about to answer when a loud crash sounded above them all. She looked up and saw another strike craft plough through the building across the street, aerial drones in hot pursuit._

* * *

"As best as Dad, and Uncle Jor, and the rest of key scientists could tell, the drones were… analyzing us. We never figured out what for. But we were able to learn something about the force behind them. It wasn't some hostile race that had attacked us. It wasn't a hive mind of artificial intelligences. It was one being. Dad was always good with signals interpretation, and he was able to parse out what it called itself. Brainiac."

* * *

 _The command center had been set up in an mall. Or, more accurately, the ruins of one. An attempt to hide in plain sight. One that hadn't worked._

 _As they approached, they could all see the drones massing about a block from the building. They'd debated what they ought to do. It had been Kara's suggestion that they had ultimately agreed to, seeing as none of them had seniority now that Tal-Vor was dead._

 _"We wait until they start their attack, then we hit them from behind at the weakest point, try to draw attention to ourselves." She'd said. "We push them towards the center while keeping their attention on us. Trap them between us and the troops in the center."_

 _It was a decent plant. And, unlike so many schemes that had been tried during the defensive effort, it had actually worked. Not without losses, however. A good quarter of the strike team was dead or wounded. But the command center was still standing._

* * *

 _Two days later, the message had made its way to her. Zod needed to talk to her. Personally. The projector at the command center wasn't in good shape. Speech was somewhat garbled, and images kept flickering in and out. But it worked. That was something._

 _"Your father contacted me," Zod said. "Said he needs your help with a counter-measure he's been working on since we made first contact. I tried to impress on him how urgent our situation in the field is, how imperative even a single fighter's presence is, but he was insistent." Zod's lips curved into a smirk. "I've learned the hard way to not argue with you Els when you know what or who you need. I'm sending a squadron to escort you. And I would like to ask you to impress upon your father the importance of time as a factor. If we can't beat this… Brainiac back, all the rest of your families plans won't matter."_

* * *

"I still don't know why it attacked us so forcefully. Maybe its because we resisted. But, you've seen what those things do. Who wouldn't?"

* * *

 _"So, it's some sort of pulse weapon, or signal disruptor?" Kara asked, hours later, as she drew back the welder from the face of the ship._

 _"Something like that." Zor-El replied, tapping away at a console._

 _"You don't know what your own weapon will do?" Kara said in disbelief._

 _"No, but… well, yes. Somewhat." Zor-El admitted. "You have to understand, key components to this are from cannibalized sources of Brainiac's own technology. Jor and I spent weeks looking over the first scout drones, and we're as close to understanding their exact workings now as we were then. I'm just fairly certain I've developed a signal that should disrupt his control of the drone forces."_

 _"So why ask Zod to send me to help?" Kara asked after several minutes of silence._

 _"Well, that should be obvious." He turned and smiled back at her. "I needed some free manual labor to help get the finishing touches on the delivery system, and I needed a pilot on short notice."_

 _"You should have asked him for some technicians and a trained pilot, then." Kara said, a smile growing on her face. That old joke between them, of Kara being free lab help, even though she always wanted to know and work on whatever Zor was. "The Council is the one who has to pay the military."_

 _"It also gets you well away from most of the fighting." Zor said quietly._

 _"Dad, if I wanted to stay away from fighting, I wouldn't have joined the military."_

* * *

"I mean, we beat stuff like that all the time." One of the Green Lanterns said. She didn't have their civilian names. "No offense, Supergirl, but dealing with threats like this is exactly why the Justice League was-" He stopped as she slammed a fist into the table before her. The metal caved and snapped beneath her arm.

"You're not getting it." She growled. "We had fleets of warships more powerful than this station, and we couldn't even scratch the paint on Brainiac's personal ship." She took a shuddering breath. "And the ships and drones weren't even the worst of it."

* * *

 _"No, you damn thing, turn around!" Kara screamed at the unresponsive controls. She'd long since passed the main line of ships desperately fighting above the planet. She'd passed what her father had said was Brainiac's personal ship minutes ago. Nothing had activated, and now the ship wasn't responding to her attempts to turn back. Or, at least, to fly back. She could rotate the cockpit itself, but the ship was dead set on a course she couldn't alter._

 _An projection flicked to life over the dashboard. It was her father's face._

 _"Kara, if you're seeing this, then you've made it." He sighed to himself. "I know you're probably going to hate me for this, but I don't care. The ship is programmed to follow the evacuation course once it reaches a certain distance from Krypton. You won't be able to override it," He said with heavy emphasis as Kara reached to start pulling away panels from the underside of the controls, clearly knowing what she'd attempt. "So don't try to." He took a deep breath. "I've detected a steadily increasing energy build-up in Brainiac's ship ever since he arrived, and its reached unsustainable levels in the last few days. I don't know what he's going to do to Kandor, to Krypton, but I know it won't be good. And I… I don't want you here when he does whatever it is he's probably been building up to this entire time. I know it's foolish, I know it's selfish, but… I want you to be safe. From whatever happens to our world. Whether Brainiac kills us all or lets us linger to die when the planet does." He sighed deeply, rubbing his eyes. She could see now that he looked tired. More tired than she'd ever seen him. "I can only hope we do survive his endgame, and that we can move forward with the plan Jor and I put together for evacuating the rest of the planet. That plan's already saving you. But I couldn't leave it to chance." He took a shuddering breath, and she thought she could see tears building in his eyes. "I want you to know, Kara, that whatever happens, I love you. More than anything. I love you, and I'm proud of the young woman you've grown to be. And I know that no matter where you go, what you do, or what happens to the rest of us, that will never change."_

 _Kara was blinded by a flash in orbit over Krypton. Even at the distance she was at, she could still see the planet well enough, and even then, she could magnify her view of it. Kandor was gone. A bubbling crater, gouged into the planet, was all that remained._

* * *

 **A disclaimer: Now, DC purists, I ask that you set the pitchforks down and not go out to blow your money on torches and replacement pitchforks just yet over the apparent bastardization of Brainiac's usual playbook. I swear, it'll all make sense. I'll also say that even here, there are hints as to what's really going on with this version of Brainiac. Consider the fact that even to the smartest minds on Krypton (a planet that was just** _ **so**_ **much more advanced than Earth technologically), Brainiac's technology is on a whole other scale. Some of the best scientific minds on the planet have months with samples of his stuff, and they still don't have a clue beyond the most basic hunches as to how it works.**

 **In terms of actual Author'sNote stuff, the idea for Zor-El to basically trick Kara into evacuating from Krypton was an idea I had late in the game. I'd long-since planned for this version of Brainiac to be a bit more destructive than he is classically, but I also realized I then had to come up with a way for a Supergirl who's in the Kryptonian military and expressly wants to fight in its defense to also leave the planet entirely before Kandor gets zapped from orbit. So Zor-El takes advantage of her protective nature by saying he's got a game-winning weapon he wants her to use, when it's actually a straight up ship he programmed to take her to Earth, as per the evacuation plan he and Jor-El put together that got put on hold what with the whole Brainiac invasion (this is also where the bit from Chapter 3 about Zor-El stealing project resources to save Kara came from).**

 **I also actually toned down the zapping of Kandor from orbit after doing some research on the Internet. Originally, there was going to just be a gaping hole in Krypton, all the way down to the unstable core, where Kandor used to be. Then I did some quick google searching and found that, in a nutshell, a planet suddenly missing a chunk of itself is going to result in a** _ **very**_ **bad day for all life on it. Even the single-celled life. Like, so bad all the** _ **other**_ **new backstory I wrote for Krypton (like Zod's civil war to force through the evacuation plan) would never have had time to even come close to begin happening. Krypton's core would've boiled up into the surface in what would basically be the WORST volcanic eruption ever and turn the surface into a lifeless hellscape, or the planet would've just straight up cracked into a zillion pieces, within days at most.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Note: Hey all. I do apologize for the long gap between chapters, but I'm also going to be blunt (and a little paradoxical) and say that I'm also not super sorry that I didn't feel like working on this much at all over the Christmas period. In addition to the usual craziness of the holidays, my dad's side of the family got hit with probably the worst sort of family crisis right before Christmas; the only sister of the family took seriously ill after falling from a bus, and was effectively brain dead within a few days before she was taken off her ventilator just after Christmas. Everything's been kind of really sad and just straight-up shit since. My priorities, thus, were/are being with my family (my dad especially), and drowning out my own sorrows through non-creative means (I didn't have the energy anyway, beyond putting together a very short, very dark The Last of Us piece I'd basically completely planned out months ago; any followers of my author account will have seen it go up). But, there's been time to process, we're in a new year that hopefully won't suck as much as the last one (my mom's family also got rocked in the middle of the year; if any of you heard about the two nun nurse practitioners murdered in their home in Mississippi… yeah), and I actually finally planned out a new bit of story that I realized I needed to have in (it also serves well as a sort of transitional piece in terms of time passage between Brainiac not being even close to our system, and Brainiac basically arriving).**

 **I do not own Young Justice. Please review, comment, or criticize constructively. Most of all, enjoy.**

* * *

The Last Daughter

Chapter 8

Breakdowns, Acceptance, and Identity

* * *

"Fine," Kara yelled. "If you're that unwilling to accept knowledge that'll actually help you just because of who's giving it to you, you can all get harvested for all I care!" She spun away from the desk before her and in a flash was all the way across the room. She just as clearly wasn't totally controlling where she going precisely, because she broke through the wooden doors at the far end, smashing them completely off their hinges and pulling some chunks of wall away besides. Conner could hear her mutter an apology to whoever was on the other side, and a promise to help fix it as soon as she came back. He heard her take off again.

"You might want to try and teach your cousin proper manners, Superman." Lex Luthor blithely suggested, and the rest of the security council could only nod. Kal shot Luthor a look that could've killed the man even without heat vision, and started to rise.

"I'll get her," Conner offered. "You hold down the fort here."

* * *

He found her in one of the few empty hallways of the building, pacing.

"What do you want?" She called shortly, not looking at him.

"Just checking up, making sure you're alright." Conner offered. He wasn't about to say that she'd probably just landed herself on a couple watch lists that didn't officially exist.

"Well, don't bother," She spat back. "I'm…" She took a shuddering breath, and as she turned slightly, he could see her hands clenched around her shoulders. "I'm f…" Her breathing quickened, and she let herself slump down against the wall. "I can't do this again." She admitted, her voice breaking.

"What are talking about?" Her approached, sat down next to her, but he didn't go any further.

"Brainiac took _everything_ from me." She gasped out. "My home. My friends. My parents. And because of what he did, my world and my people died before they could save themselves. Because of what he did, they destroyed themselves so completely in the aftermath, they lost any hope of being able to save themselves." It sounded like she was about to burst into tears, but what he could see of her face beyond her hair was dry. "Because of him, I lost everything I ever knew. And then, I was taken here," She sniffled, raising her head, clearly looking through the building. Looking at the bustling city outside, at the people and animals and rivers and sky. "To this beautiful world, where my baby cousin had survived and flourished and… and I had the chance to start again." A sad smile flickered on her lips. "New world, new life, new friends," She lightly punched his shoulder. "New family." The remnants of the smile died. "And now…" She finally turned to look at him. "Now he's coming back. And I'm terrified of what'll happen when he arrives. Because I can't go through it all again. Because I _can't_ _lose everything again._ " Her head fell into her hands, and Conner reached an arm around her shoulder as her words devolved into sobs.

* * *

She'd spent almost every minute of the last two days in her room on the Watchtower. Looking at the warsuit. At every piece of it, disassembled and laid out, down to the emergency undersuit she'd been wearing as her superhero outfit. She'd left for meals and an emergency mission involving an enemy of Aqualad's called Black Manta, but that was it. The rest of the time, she was in her room. Considering the suit.

She was, honestly, really glad Conner had gone after her when she'd stormed out of the defense hearings the League had arranged. She hadn't truly realized how much she needed to air those feelings. Now that she'd finally put them to voice, she could turn them into action. She was hoping.

She looked at the suit. When Kid Flash had first found it in the ship, she'd thought it was good thing. A reminder that Kyrpton wasn't gone for good; that it survived, through everything and everyone that was still left. She wasn't sure if she believed that anymore. But what did that mean it was, if it wasn't a symbol of their survival? And what did that make her?

* * *

Five days in. Kal and Artemis and Conner and just about everyone had expressed rather intense concern for her in their own ways (M'Gann had dropped in earlier with hours of small talk and a plate of cookies), but she'd assured them all she was fine. She just needed to figure something out. She also needed to muster up the courage to do what she knew she needed to do to give herself a better perspective. She knew what she had to do. But she was terrified of the reality her actions would create for her. What she would admit by going forward. She also knew she had no choice anymore. She knew she had to beat this.

She pulled on the undersuit, the supersuit as most everyone else called it. She paused to look at her reflection in the mirror. It was strange. She didn't see Kara Zor-El. She didn't see whatever cover identity Batman had been working on that she'd rejected outright. She saw Supergirl. In other times, Supergirl might've been enough. But Supergirl was something else for her, and her alone. She was a way to hide, to ignore the pain and loss and guilt by being someone who's only concern was drop-kicking bad guys at a hundred miles an hour and saving people caught up in disasters. She was a way to distance herself from everything. Distance that wouldn't do her any good anymore.

She started with the boots, strapping the plates over the red fabric after the metal soles latched themselves to the bottoms of her feet. She worked her way up, snapping on plates around her calves and thighs. She waited on the torso, working instead at her arms. Vambraces locked into place over the metal bindings melded into the forearms of the undersuit. The plates around her biceps slid open and slid shut again around her arms as she set them into place. She removed the cape from its interior latches, and reached down to lift the chestplate.

It snapped shut once she slid herself through a opening in the side. She could hear gears and motors running as the main systems started powering up. She was slightly taken aback as the shoulder pads simply shot into place as she brought them close on either side. Finally, she drew the cape back around her, setting the clasps into the armored latches.

She looked in the mirror. She didn't see Supergirl anymore. She saw Kara Zor-El. The Last Daughter of Krypton, ready to fight her world's destroyer one more time.

* * *

 **This whole chapter, from the hearings to the breakdown to the identity musings to the suit-up, was a very recent idea that I just knew I had to do once I got it in my head. There'd absolutely be a sort of security conference if Earth's premiere superhero team said an invasion was imminent (there was actually a cut section where Kara basically told Lex Luthor in particular, as a member of the Light who helped facilitate the Reach invasion, to just go screw himself in so many words; I decided starting on the end of her tirade and argument with Luthor and the security council just worked better). More to the point, the breakdown scene was one I really knew I needed, especially after the last two chapters where it's just been Kara in kill-rage and reminiscence and furiously insisting that nobody on Earth gets what they're going to be up against (somewhat fairly, somewhat unfairly; ). She needed the chance to explain why she's so off-kilter.**

 **As for the identity musings and suit-up, that's me using one of the SuperKids to again raise some superhero-nature questions. Sure, Kara enjoys being a superhero, but that isn't her whole identity. She's still Kara Zor-El, and she's so far refused a more regular identity for living on Earth. So I thought what being Supergirl could mean to the Kara I've been building. And I realized what being a superhero would mean to this Kara; Supergirl's an escape for her. A way to focus solely on beating the snot of evil people and saving the lives of innocents. It's the perfect distraction from all the pain she's carrying around, because it's everything she ever wanted to do (she joined the military to protect a dying world), but even simpler and easier now that she has superpowers and can share the League's rogues gallery. But she doesn't see Supergirl as herself. Not yet, anyway. As far as she's concerned, Supergirl is as much something she takes off and puts on as much as the costume.**

 **That's the point of those final sentences; she's not going into the coming battle as Supergirl, Superman's plucky-with-a-arguably-stronger-sense-of-justice younger cousin. She's going in as Kara. And she's bringing along everything that implies. It's also handy because it gives the warsuit a purpose beyond "badass, but ultimately pointless for Supergirl from a utility standpoint."**


	9. Chapter 9 - War

**Note: This time, I fully apologize for how long this update took. I did take some time off from, well, everything, partly because I needed it after last year, and partly because I also still had to plan out exactly what would happen here. I had a bunch of major moments down in stone, but the path between them wasn't in place. Still isn't entirely, if I'm being honest. Which I am. But anyway, now we're into the meat of things. Forewarning, this chapter'll be extra long (basically a three-in-one chapter, possibly even four), to get in a lot of key moments at once, and to make up for the gap between updates.**

 **I do not own Young Justice, nor any characters therein. Please review, comment, or criticize constructively. Most of all, enjoy.**

* * *

The Last Daughter

Chapter 9

War

* * *

They'd been half right, and half wrong, M'Gann decided. Supergirl hadn't been giving all of them, from the Team to the League, enough credit in the sort of threats they'd stopped. And they hadn't been giving Supergirl enough credit when she kept warning them about how dangerous Brainiac would be. It was a strange mix of everyone being right and wrong all at once.

Earth's conventional forces could only do so much against extraterrestrial threats. Or even threats that came from Earth. At the moment, they were doing an adequate job of making sure the League wasn't completely swamped and unable to help where things were worst. But that was all they could do. At least, all they could do safely.

The League had tried handling things like they had the countless invasions they'd dealt with over the years. Keep major invading forces as bottled as possible while they tried to figure out how to target the main leader. It was unfortunate, then, that Brainiac seemed immune to those strategies. No matter how many drones or scout ships they destroyed, more always replaced them. And the areas that were getting the worst of the invasion seemed to change by the hour. Everywhere, from what she'd heard, was getting hit, but focus seemed to follow Brainiac's personal ship. A vast, skull-shaped craft that hung in low orbit, spewing out an apparently endless supply of drones and ships to analyze and harvest and destroy.

The ship itself posed the second problem. Usually, they'd find a way to break inside and take down either it or Brainiac. But they couldn't find a way inside. Shielding technology that even the brightest minds on Earth couldn't adequately describe blocked any sort of external entry, such as Zeta beaming or just punching through the hull. They'd tried targeting it with the Watchtower when it had passed over an uninhabited region of Earth, just in case they missed. While they had managed to punch a hole in the shield with the station's lazer, the breach had resealed itself before they could take advantage of it.

Supergirl had suggested looking down the path her father had claimed he'd been pursuing; using signal networks to try and disrupt Brainiac's control of his minions, force him to leave his ship. Work on that angle was, as far as anyone knew, ongoing.

* * *

She heard a shifting of metal plates behind her, before a loud burning and rushing sound drowned it out. As she turned, she saw Supergirl hovering before her, clutching the half-melted head of a drone in one hand.

"You alright?" She asked, tossing the head away and reaching with her other hand. M'Gann still wasn't quite used to the armor Kara had donned, but she couldn't deny that it suited the girl. She nodded. She looked down, could see the red and yellow blurs of Flash and Kid Flash speeding through the streets, knocking down drones and running civilians to the few safe evacuation checkpoints that had been established in every major city, mostly on the word of Supergirl about the fate of Kandor. Everyone else who could fly or reach the rooftops was trying to keep a handle on the ships.

Supergirl's head snapped in the direction of the Daily Planet. A second later, Conner's voice sounded in her head.

 _Superman's in trouble. I need help at the Planet._

* * *

Superman was tenuously hovering in the middle of a pack of a dozen drones. And while she didn't have Kryptonian super senses, M'Gann could tell that they were doing whatever it was they'd tried to do to Conner. She could just make out dozens of metal strands through the gaps, stabbing _into_ Superman. She fought down the cold feeling that started gathering in her stomach. If these things could actually hurt Superman… Conner, after all, was only-

Her train of thought broke as she saw him leap into one side of the pack, punching and grabbing and tearing as hard as he could. Supergirl picked up speed, leaving her behind. She could see the glow of her heat vision blasting into the back end of the pack.

Their interference seemed to give Superman the breathing room he apparently needed. Several shakes tossed several drones against the sides of buildings, or down to the street. Conner and Supergirl double-teamed the last few still hooked into him; she burned away the strands, Conner tossed or punched them across several blocks as he occasionally leapt up to regain height.

Supergirl held their arms, floating down to the roof of the nearest building, and threw her arms around Superman. M'Gann slowed, drifting into the mental link to see how everyone else was doing. Her vision refocused on the three Kryptonians on the roof when Supergirl went flying and-

A beam of energy swallowed Superman and Conner, quickly dissipating and leaving only glowing stone. She was numbly aware of her gaze following the last remnants of the beam, to one of Brainiac's attack ships that had fired on them from behind.

A red and blue blur smashed into its side and tore through the other end. Again and again, it shot through, until the ship was reduced to chunks falling towards the ground. M'Gann heard a dull roaring sound in her ears, before she realized where it was coming from. Supergirl, floating above the roof, right where they'd been. She drove her fist into the roof, and it crumbled beneath her blow. Her head turned up, towards the sky, towards Brainiac's ship, and she screamed something in Kryptonian, screamed so loud M'Gann thought her eardrums might burst. Then she was gone, a colored blur tearing through the sky and through Brainiac's forces.

M'Gann numbly realized that she'd let the mental link shut down.

* * *

General Eiling reflected that things seemed to have calmed down, relatively speaking, in the last half hour. The drones and ships were mostly milling about, for whatever reason, giving the League easy targets to mop up. Which some of them apparently really needed; he'd seen Wonder Woman furiously tackle an entire ship into the side of a building earlier.

He didn't know exactly what had happened, but rumors circulating from the teams who'd come in from the downtown section of Metropolis said that the robots had taken out Superman and his kid brother, or whatever it was Superboy was. Eiling had made sure to clamp down on those rumors, making sure nothing spread any farther than it already had. Even the insinuation that the big guy in blue was gone was enough to give Eiling pause. He didn't want to think what would happen at the other evacuation checkpoints if the rumor started spreading. Mass panic and a lot of people crushed to death, he guessed.

He looked up as some of the junior Leaguers came in. The girl martian, the blonde with the orange suit and crossbows. He had to shake his head at that. Crossbows. Along with the Blue Beetle, Wonder Girl, and the kid he assumed was Batman's latest sidekick. The martian seemed off. Almost in shock, despite the fact that Eiling had seen her pull apart a dozen drones just by looking at them, and crossbow girl had an arm around her shoulder, hand squeezed tight.

Eiling felt his ears pop and was slightly defeaned by a sonic boom, felt the ground shake beneath his feet. Supergirl had slammed down at high speed behind the others, feet gouging wide gaps into the street. Blue Beetle coughed and pointed at her. She looked down, and noticed that a drone head was stuck halfway up her left arm, through a hole driven in its forehead. She reached with one hand and tore at its jaw, tossing the half of the head off into the street as the top half fell away. Eiling sadly realized that if anything confirmed the rumors, Supergirl did. Her wild face was streaked with dust and tear marks, and he guessed her shaking shoulders were either because she'd been fighting so hard she'd actually gotten tired, or she was grappling with the fact that the only family she had left had been killed.

"Contact!" one of the perimeter guards called.

"How many?" Eiling yelled back, taking care not to move too fast or too close the Leaguers who turned and started raring themselves back up.

"One." Even the guard sounded uncertain.

The figure floated in, standing on a bright purple disk of light. It stepped down, and Eiling could hear the rubble crunch beneath metal plates. It didn't look like any of the drones. It was far taller, for one. Nearly seven feet. Actually colored, too. A mix of green and purple metal made up most of it, along what almost looked like green flesh, or something close to it, in several spots. It also had an actual face. Which was apparently locked in a permanent glare of superiority, even though its mouth didn't seem to curve in any particular direction. It was more an intrinsic thing about it. Three large, red lights glowed in the center of its head. It looked over the checkpoint with glowing red eyes, its gaze quickly resting on Supergirl.

"I am Brainiac," it called out, sounding… slightly less robot-y than Eiling thought it would. "Recent events have led me to-"

He didn't get to finish. In fact, seconds later, Eiling couldn't even see him. The only clues he had to what had just happened was the trail of dust and rubble streaking back into the city, the rage-filled scream still ringing in his ears, and the fact that Supergirl was gone.

* * *

She didn't even know how many buildings she'd flown him through, smashing through steel and glass and concrete. She also didn't care. Brainiac was here. Finally, he'd left his Rao-damned impenetrable ship. And she could finally kill him.

A jolt of painful energy ran through her, and she stopped blasting forward. She felt hands tighten around her waist, and suddenly found herself turning end over end then slamming into the ground. She pulled her head out of the street and saw Brainiac, perfectly righted, step down from another platform of what she assumed was hard light. He turned and fixed his eyes on her.

"Cease this-" She dove forward and punched him in what should've been his stomach. As hard as she could. He smashed through the small store behind him, and clearly carried on. She flew up into the air, following the path of wreckage.

"I told you." She yelled, assuming he was advanced enough hear her. "I told you what would happen if you came here." She saw movement a few buildings down, and let her heat vision loose. Strangely, she felt resistance.

Then she saw Brainiac calmly walk out of the melting front of the building she'd hit him into, a disk of light projecting from one of his palms, stopping her heat vision dead in its tracks. With a cry, she broke off the beam and started to bank to one side to pick up speed.

A white, jagged beam of energy, almost like a lightning bolt, struck her. She couldn't move, she could barely think, the pain was so intense. She dropped like a rock and felt the beam fade as she landed heavily on her side.

"Kara Zor-El," his voice rang out, and suddenly he was much closer than he seemed a second ago. "I do not-" She threw herself at him, spinning on her right side and driving her elbow into his face. To her surprise, she didn't knock him straight through the street. He held his ground. Ground that cracked beneath his feet, admittedly, but ground that was still held.

She felt something strike her stomach, heard the metal of her warsuit crack, and had to drop to her knees as the breath was forced out of her. Nothing, not Zod, not any of the supervillains, nor even Kal in the practice bouts, had ever hit her that hard before.

"This exercise is pointl-" She interrupted him by coming back with heat vision, that he again simply blocked with a disk of light. She saw his other hand reaching, and swung out, knocking it aside. The energy bolt blasted the crumpled remains of a car, leaving the metal of the entire vehicle glowing red. She followed up. Quick shots to his gut and a temporary increase in heat vision to try and attract his full attention. She let it die out as soon as she saw one of his eyes focus on hers; she didn't want to know what would happen if he pushed close enough with the hard light and her heat vision was still going. A quick kick to his right knee, punch to his face. She dashed around him as he seemed to stumble, and grabbed the plates of his back. She threw him, and watched him sail through a skyscraper. She took a moment to catch her breath, taking in a few great gulps of air, before taking off again.

She dove through the buildings, trying to follow the trail like she had before. She thought she saw his landing point. Then the side of the building next to her exploded outwards and one of Brainiac's metal knees was driving into her face. She, again, had a moment to reflect on how much that _hurt_ , before she was tumbling through the building opposite her. She briefly recognized how much tumbling through the building, the actual experience of it, _sucked._ She honestly didn't realize it was this unpleasant. The constant smashing against things and everything she could see being a rotating jumble of bits and pieces.

* * *

After what felt like forever, she felt herself smash through glass and hang in open air. She started to right herself before something slammed into her chest. She looked up and saw Brainiac's back, his feet planted firmly on her warsuit's chestplate, somehow driving himself and her down.

She made a crater in the street on impact, and she could again feel the metal of the warsuit crack beneath the sheer force. She drew gasping breaths as Brainiac stepped off her. She thought she saw a dent in the knee he'd hit her with.

Then he nailed her with another blast, and she couldn't think at all.

The blast died quickly, and the pain went with it. He raised the hand he'd blasted her with.

"As I have tried to-" A series of metallic thuds sounded out. Kara, from her perspective, could see something like half a dozen batarangs at least, all lodged in the plates of Brainiac's right arm. He turned his head and raised his arm to inspect just what had hit him.

And then the batarangs exploded in clouds of smoke and shrapnel. Kara felt herself lift off of the ground and move quickly. Not under her own power. It took her a moment to get her bearings and realize Kid Flash had snatched her out of the crater, carrying her away from Brainiac. She watched as everyone else dove at him. He seemed hardly the worse for wear from the team effort by Batman and Robin and Batgirl. He also didn't seem incredibly bothered by the massive team of superheroes attacking him.

More shields of hard light formed around him, blocking Tigress and Green Arrow, while he moved with blazing speed to bat away attacks and people coming in close. Wonder Girl tried to rope her lasso around him from behind, but he seemed to see that coming. He reached behind his back and seized the loop, and his torso seemed to spin on top of his waist, smashing her through buildings until he released his grip. Aquaman, Aqualad, and Wonder Woman dove at him from all sides. He sidestepped Aquaman's stab and pushed the trident forward, ramming it against Wonder Woman's shield. He spun on his feet and went around Aquaman, slamming his fist into the king's face and knocking him off his feet. A blast of energy from his left hand floored Aqualad while his right parried each of Wonder Woman's strikes. She was shoving him with each connection, but that was all she was doing. Brainiac finally used both hands, and batted Wonder Woman's sword and shield aside before delivering a swift kick to her midsection, followed up by another energy blast as she slid backwards on her knees.

Kara started to rise, but Kid Flash set a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, we're all here now. Take a minute. We got this." He said.

Kara's gaze drifted towards Brainiac's knee. The one he'd managed to dent hitting her. Wonder Woman came back while he was distracted dodging a hammer summoned up by Green Lantern and grazed his face. She could see the synthetic flesh break around the blade.

"No," She said, pushing Kid Flash away. "He's _mine_." Kid Flash looked a little scared of her just then.

She shot forward, flying low to the ground, heat vision building in her eyes.

She came under the hard light shields, as he turned and threw Wonder Woman towards Batgirl, who was swooping down from one of the rooftops. Kara clenched one hand into a fist and held it, recognizing that this would probably hurt.

She aimed and flew, fist-first, into the dent in Brainiac's knee, while letting her heat vision blast up into the general area of his opposite shoulder. Brainiac yelled in pain along with Kara as his knee caved inwards, the metal stabbing into her fist. She was almost embarrassed at how pleased the sound of him crying out in pain made her. She tore her hand free from the nearly shattered wreckage of his knee and came up, driving her elbow against the small cut Wonder Woman had made. Brainiac reeled, as much as he had reeled at anything, which honestly wasn't much, and Kara reached around him. She lifted him up and turned, passing him over her head as she slammed him down against the street. She turned her heat vision back up, blasting at the back side of the shoulder she'd been focusing on. She watched the metal glow and start to melt and flake away. She stomped one foot down on his back, and set her other foot on his other wrist, holding his good arm in place as best she could.

Kara reached down and wrapped her fingers around Brainiac's head. Faces flashed through her mind. Tal-Vor. Her parents. Her friends from school and the military academy. Zod. Uncle Jor and Aunt Lara. Everyone else on Krypton. Rao only knew how many so far on Earth. Conner. Kal.

"I told you." She hissed down at him. And she pulled with all her strength. She wasn't sure how long it took, and she honestly surprised none of the League tried to stop her. But after another good tug, she felt something give, and pulled again.

The skin itself had long since broken; a long, metallic spine, snapped about a quarter of the way down its length, dripping… _something_ with small bolts of energy arcing and fading along its length, slid out from between the plates covering Brainiac's neck. Breathing heavily, she tossed the head away, and stepped off the body. She finally looked around, taking in the shocked, and in many cases disapproving, looks of the League.

"I know that a lot of you-" Something seized her hair and yanked her to the ground. She saw a ruined metal leg swing over her, and felt a plated foot brace itself against her chest. Brainiac's headless body crouched on top of her.

"To think that I would allow myself to be hampered by the same flaws in design as you." His voice rang out. "I'm almost insulted, Kara Zor-El." His good hand clamped over her mouth. She saw his chest, focusing on it almost at random in her honest terror. She'd shattered some of the plating, and she could see liquid and energy leaking through the cracks.

"Should've covered my eyes." She said. Mostly for the pleasure of the comeback. It was completely unintelligible with his hand over her mouth.

She fired her heat vision into what looked like the weakest point, and she was swiftly rewarded. The up-close, nearly point-blank force, blasted through the weakened metal. She heard him cry in pain again, but she kept her focus, pouring more and more energy into the beam from eyes. It was starting to get painful when she finally saw that she'd managed to bore a hole through his chest. His grip loosened, and she shoved his body off her, keeping the heat vision on target, melting or outright incinerating as much of whatever his insides were that she could hit. His continued cry broke down, fragmenting like a bad audio file before stuttering out into silence.

* * *

"Whatever you did," the human officer said to her, "It worked. Reports are coming in from teams in the rest of the city. Bots everywhere are shut down." They'd taken it slow getting back to the main evacuation checkpoint for her sake. She was also grateful they'd decided to save the lecture.

"On that topic…" She heard Batman say. She sighed.

"Can't we save the scolding for at least…" She saw something, in the distance, move. But with everyone standing in front of her, she couldn't be sure. "Move," She said, pushing, then outright shoving her way as best she could through the assembled superheroes. "Move!" She made it to the front of the pack and braced her hands on one of the dividing blocks the earth military had set up. She could see clearly now. But what she saw shouldn't have been possible. "No, that can't be." She said to herself. She could see drones, several streets down, moving towards the checkpoint. She vaguely recognized the same soldier from before call out incoming, heard the officer's radio come to life with reports of renewed activity.

She felt the ground shake, and saw a large shadow grow larger, reaching from behind her to, she realized, slowly blanket the city. She turned, and saw the giant metal skull of Brainiac's ship descending on the city. Swarms of drones, enough to choke the street and cover several small buildings, were flooding down the street.

"This isn't possible," She said. "I killed you." She looked down from the ship to see the approaching drones, then glared up at the ship and felt her heat vision burst to life on reflex. " _I killed you!"_ She screamed at the ship, at the being who was somehow piloting it and commanding the drones before her. Who was, impossibly, alive.

"As I said, Kara Zor-El," The voice, his voice, grabbed her attention. The beam of heat vision broke, but she could feel the energy building in her eyes still. She tore her gaze from the ship and saw a burning doorway of energy resting in mid-air, an utterly alien room on the other side. "I'm almost insulted at the fact that you believe I would allow myself to be hampered by the same flaws in design as you." Brainiac, apparently untouched, stepped through the doorway.

* * *

 **So, yeah. Like, four or so chapters in one. I imagine some of you will be able to spot the points where individual chapters might break off, had I done this whole thing piecemeal. Also, on the topic of Brainiac; he must have a badass voice, and I'm honestly torn between Corey Burton (as classic as it gets for Brainiac), and Dee Bradley Baker (the man who'll be voicing him in the upcoming Injustice 2, and who has already** _ **killed**_ **it with just a single trailer monologue). In case it wasn't clear enough from the description of all the metal plates, this Brainiac is more along the lines of the one from Legion of Superheroes (damn that show was good) mixed with a dash of his more traditional, fleshy, body-suit self.**

 **Anyways, the opening of this is why this took so frigging long to write. I had the Superman scene more or less planned out for a while, I had Kara vs Brainiac roughly planned out (mostly just: they fight and hit each other into/through stuff for a bit), the League coming to the rescue was a recent idea that I worked in, and Kara was also always going to straight-up kill Brainiac. In early drafts, she burned through his head with heat vision, but I thought I could go a little bolder. Those death-drafts were also before I hit upon Brainiac's quintessential line in this chapter; it's insulting to think he's limited by the same design flaws as organic life. Tear off his head and completely snap his robo-spine? Only organics need an attached head and unbroken spinal column to function. The pansies. Also, Brainiac is a hyper-advanced, hyper-intelligent life form. He's not going to die like the aliens in War of the Worlds, and the biological complexity of a swamp isn't going to make his brain explode. This Brainiac could comprehend the biological complexity of all the swamps on Earth in about ten minutes. Hence why he can leave his ship for attempted conversation and beat-downs without an issue.**

 **But back on topic, I had no idea how to start this whole thing rolling. Then I thought; the Superman/Superboy scene is first. Let's start with a general perspective shifting to exacting from the one person who'd be about as devastated by the proceedings as Kara. M'Gann. Bam. Had my way to start. Was so happy that I could. Of note, on the beam-scene; Superman tossed Kara away (he was facing the ship, he could see it coming) and obviously would've tossed Conner too if he'd had the time. Just in case that isn't totally clear.**

 **Also, anyone remember that bit right at the end of the last chapter, how Kara was going into this fight as Kara, not Supergirl? Yeah, that mental distinction in her head is a big point of insight, I feel, into her actions here. She's not a supehero trying to save the planet from invading aliens; she's the only other (and then only) survivor of a race and planet whose destruction she blames Brainiac for. She was also training for a good portion of her life to be a soldier. So of course she's going to kill the person she deems most responsible for the death/destruction of everything and everyone she ever knew. She swore she'd kill him or die to him back in Chapter 6, and she does not make threats. She makes promises.**

 **Lastly, there's still more going on here than there seems to be, and there's another hint as to what is really happening in this very chapter. It's subtle, I'll say that. But there is more going on here than any character we've had a perspective chapter/section from so far knows. The only character who has even half of the full story at this point got his head ripped off.**


	10. Chapter 10-Misunderstandings

**Note: Some distraction with sickness, personal projects, and Word on my computer being stupid and glitchy are to blame for the time this update took. Also planning out exactly what went where, because there was some stuff here that I wasn't sure was going to make it in and also work.**

 **I do not own Young Justice. Please review, comment, or criticize constructively. Most of all, enjoy.**

* * *

The Last Daughter

Chapter 10

Misunderstandings

* * *

She couldn't do anything. That was unquestionably the worst of it. Face to face with the monster that had killed her people, who she could swear she'd killed, and she couldn't do anything. Not just because he seemed apparently immortal. At this point, after some of the things she'd seen on Earth, she considered that an interesting challenge to try and overcome. No, it was the army and heavily armed warship Brainiac had right at his back, and all the innocent people behind her, huddling together as the would-be architect of their annihilation smirked down at her. She couldn't do anything because she knew she couldn't keep all of them safe.

"I killed you." She honestly couldn't think of anything else to say. However much she understood how little she could now do, she was still reeling from Brainiac's apparent return from the grave.

"You did," He admitted, his voice tinting with what almost sounded like respect. "However, as I said before, I am not bound by the same flaws in design as you. As," He seemed to consider his next words. "Organic life." He settled on. His hovering form dropped to the street beneath him, the burning doorway still hanging in the air behind him, like a magic spell from one of the fables Kara's mother had read to her when she was little. "My consciousness is contained in one major platform, true. And destroying that platform does obstruct its ability to maintain my mind. But my mind has no use if it is the only one available to me." A hologram blossomed from his hand, most of the information formed in alien symbols Kara didn't understand, but she clearly recognized wireframes of Brainiac's body and his ship. "Back-ups, if you will, of my consciousness are stored throughout the systems on my ship, and in servers I have constructed elsewhere in the galaxy. My mobile platform can stream sensory data to local systems, which in turn beam the data out to far-reaching holdings. Thus, should my body be destroyed and my mind die, my back-ups have access to what would otherwise be unknowable information, and the latest iteration need merely wait for a new body to be fabricated to house them."

Kara felt something drop out of her stomach. She thought it might just be her stomach. True, Brainiac wasn't technically immortal, but from the sounds of his little speech, he might as well have been. Truly killing him would take more than Kara could give. Though that didn't mean she still wouldn't try anyway. Brainiac seemed to pick up on her train of thought, and she realized she'd clenched her fists as she resolved that his cheating of death wasn't about to stop her.

"I did not come here to continue our pointless battle, Kara Zor-El." He said, raising a hand, clearly asking her to stop whatever she was considering doing. "Even in my first personal excursion to this world, I did not come to fight."

"Then what did you come down for?" Kara spat out.

"I came," Kara swore it almost sounded like Brainiac had sighed, "Because I believe there has been, on both of our parts, a gross misunderstanding of our goals and methods. It is an error I would like to attempt to rectify." Kara simply stood, gaping at him.

"Misunderstanding?" She repeated in disbelief. " _Misunderstanding?!_ " Her anger at his assertion drove all common sense from her mind, and she reached up the seize his chest plate and drag his head down to level with hers, feeling heat build in her eye sockets. She was dimly aware as the army of drones shifted into ready positions behind Brainiac, and the soldiers and superheroes behind her did the same. "You _butchered_ thousands of my people, and then you wiped our capital city off the face of the planet!" Brainiac almost flinched as a few flecks landed on his face. "Because of you, my people _died_. And then you come here, doing the same thing all over again for reasons Rao only knows, you destroy the only family I have left… and you think that's all just a _misunderstanding_!?"

"Indeed." Brainiac said calmly. "You have already articulated almost every point I have observed. There are things you do not understand about me and what I do, and there are oversights in my evaluation of the fate of your world. I would endeavor to correct these gaps in our knowledge, for both our sakes." Kara scoffed.

"Is that why you brought the army?" She nodded her head at the drones behind him. "So I have no choice but to parse through your twisted head?"

"Not at all." Brainiac waved a hand, and the drones fell back into simply standing. Then they started backing up. "I merely assumed your reaction to my reappearance would again be one of violence, and I did not wish to wait any longer to try and appeal to solve the root of our issues. I assumed the drones would make you hesitate, and allow me to make my offer."

"You honestly think you can justify _anything_ you've done?" Kara demanded.

" I do. Likewise, on your reactions to my presence and the actions of my forces," Brainiac waved his hand and more holograms appeared, a cut-together clip of Kara flying through his attack ships. Just after Kal and Conner had been… She could hear herself screaming in Kryptonian, asking how much more would he have to take before he was satisfied? How many more worlds and billions of people would he have to kill? "Your accusations indicate gaps within my own understanding. All I ask, Kara Zor-El, is that we allow each other the time to explain ourselves in full to one another." Brainiac pulled away, drawing his chest out of her grip, and held his hand out to the burning door.

Kara glared at him, fury and indignation still coursing through her. Her subconscious drifted, years back, all the way to Krypton…

* * *

 _He'd called her to the Hall of Weapons. Which she was nervous about. Technically, she wasn't allowed to enter with the intent to use anything in it until the results from the examination came through. Which she still wasn't even ready to take. But he was her sponsor, her teacher. She trusted he had a plan. Zod's stone face shifted to the barest of smiles as she sprinted up the steps. She was actually a quarter hour early. He'd set this session at an unusual time; the sun hadn't risen, and building security hadn't even managed to swap out shifts._

 _"Come." Zod said, turning and waving a badge before the scanner, pushing the doors open with his free hand._

 _They walked past particle rifles, dark matter bombs, plasma blades, all lit in low light, doors behind the public display cases leading to racks and racks of each weapon that only military personnel could access. A massive domestic armory, hidden in plain sight._

 _"So, what are we starting with?" She asked. She'd been drilling with standard-issue training weapons, and a few exotic devices Zod had pressed upon her, for weeks._

 _"There's a urban legend about this place," Zod said. His gaze cast down the main level, to the elevators. "Supposedly, somewhere down in the deepest sublevels, hidden away, are the most ancient weapons. Branches, bones, rocks. The first true weapons of any sapient life form. And the first weapons of the first true Kryptonians."_

 _"Well, that's a interesting story, sir, but what does that-"_

 _"We won't be using anything on this level, Kara." Zod cut in. "We won't be using anything on any of the levels above or below this one, either. And if those cases of bones and sticks and rocks were actually here somewhere, we wouldn't even use those." He turned to her, his gaze taking on the intensity she was used to from him. "There is a weapon more powerful than any other in this entire complex. Every soldier, every warrior has it, and few ever care enough to truly master it as they should. Before we even remove a knife from this Hall to train with, you will first master this weapon."_

 _"What is it?" Kara asked, honestly perplexed. Zod reached out and jabbed a finger against her chest, then her head._

 _"Yourself. Your mind, your emotions, your senses. You could be wearing armor that is indestructible against conventional firepower, and armed with the most advanced weapons in the galaxy. But if you cannot keep yourself in control, no weapon or armor will be enough to save you, or those you have been sworn to save. If you lose control of yourself, all you will achieve is death."_

* * *

She remembered that speech, and the training that had followed after. Simulations of friends Zod knew she had made in preliminary training, of buildings she frequented, of family, of random strangers; all being obliterated. Grueling treks through the badlands outside of Kandor's limits in the dead of night, where she couldn't even see her hand in front of her face, and where she all but cooked in the heat when the sun finally rose. She remembered the lesson he had been working to impart on her: control. Control of her senses, her emotions, her reactions to the inevitable chaos and horror of war. If she could not master herself, could not have control, she was worse than useless. She was a danger to herself and everyone around her.

She numbly realized, as her anger bled away, it was a lesson she'd forgotten since her father's ship had taken her away as Kandor was destroyed. So many times, she'd lost herself to a vengeful fury, acting with her full strength with no care for collateral damage. She grimly remembered yanking Aqualad off his feet, smashing a dent into the League's table. She also still owed Martha for the door she'd heard she'd ultimately effectively disintegrated; the two halves she'd smashed it into as she flew through it had moved so far and so fast they had been reduced to little more than splinters and shards of metal by the time they landed. Charging through attack ships, heedless of the debris raining down onto the buildings where people might've been hiding, and where they would hope to return to once the threat was dealt with.

She also realized that Zod had forgotten it, too. From what the remnants of Aunt Lara and Uncle Jor had told her, Zod had gone all but mad after the destruction of Kandor. He'd launched a civil war when the planet was on a months-long countdown to total destruction simply because the few surviving authorities refused to agree with his support of Jor's plan. Support that, in the chaos of the aftermath of Kandor's destruction, her aunt and uncle didn't really even need to try and put the plan into action on a smaller scale. He'd squandered the little time they'd had left to save themselves, because he'd lost the one thing he'd always championed.

She looked at Brainiac, at the destroyer of her people. Though, she supposed, the second destroyer, feeling tears build in her eyes as she accepted the full weight of what a man she'd once admired had become. And what she'd nearly become. She looked at Brainiac, at the machine that killed thousands directly, and billions indirectly, asking for a chance to explain himself to his last surviving victim.

"This better be good." She declared, and floated up into the doorway. Brainiac followed behind her, and the doorway snapped shut as soon as he crossed over.

* * *

 **Gonna be honest, I meant for this chapter to be a longer, but when I wrote out that line with the portal door closing, I knew I had** _ **the**_ **perfect spot to leave a cliffhanger ending that could also perfectly transition into the long talk between Kara and Brainiac.**

 **So, we're finally about to hit the meat and explanations of this version of Brainiac. All those hints I said were layered in the previous chapters as to what's really going on where his actions are concerned, and his apparently wildly altered MO, are going to be laid bare next. After Kara chews him out over Kyrpton and Kandor, of course.**

 **On the subject of Kara, this was a moment of character I figured out late, but knew I had to do when it struck me. Kara realizing her own unreasonability, her own lack of control over herself where** _ **anything**_ **involving Brainiac is concerned. And sure, we might think her reactions are at least understandable considering her circumstances, but the point is that Kara doesn't think so when she actually thinks about what she's done. As far as she's concerned, as a warrior, a soldier, and now a superhero, there's a higher standard that she's been failing to hold herself to. A standard Zod tried to teach her. And which Zod also ultimately failed to live up to when he lost everything. Huh. Noticing a pattern of behavior, there.**

 **Also, on Zod. I only said he wasn't a evil psychotic fascist with designs on taking over all of Krypton; I never said he was actually just a really swell guy. He's not. He's an absolute hard-ass who expects the best from everyone, and while he's willing to help them try and be their best (which is why he's personally training Kara before she's even taken the military entrance examination), he's got no time for people who can't meet his expectations. I actually had that whole flashback scene and Zod's monologue about control and the urban-legend case of bones and rocks planned out in my head basically since I started writing the first chapter, but got increasingly worried as I went on that I wouldn't be able to find a place to fit it in smoothly, and would just have let it languish on the cutting room floor. Then I realized that Kara needed to realize she had to chill the f out, and suddenly, I had the perfect way to get across why Kara would realize that.**

 **Lastly, on Brainiac himself. This is again drawing somewhat from Legion of Superheroes (seriously, that show was so good, you guys), where Brainiac 5 sacrifices himself to help Superman destroy an evil supercomputer. As Supes is mournfully cradling Brainy's corpse, the rest of the team just gives him a weird look and asks each other where his latest back-up disk is. It's wonderful because it makes** _ **all**_ **of the sense for a cybernetic race to be able to back up their minds in case their bodies get destroyed. This particular Brainiac just takes the idea of backing up his mind to a major extreme; seeding tons of back up servers all over the galaxy and streaming all of his sensory data to them through his ship, so that if he dies, his back up self will know exactly what killed him, and be up to date on what else he was doing before he died. It also doesn't make Brainiac actually immortal; just really, really hard to permanently kill. You'd need to pre-emptively find and destroy all his server farms across the galaxy, then his ship, and then finally kill him, to make sure he actually stayed dead.**


	11. Chapter 11 - Explanations

**Note: Oh man, you guys. This is it! The Big Talk! The Explanations scene! It'll probably be another massive expositional dialogue dump (** **Squealing sounds)! In all seriousness, this IS the bit where Brainiac will finally explain just what on earth (and so, so, so many other planets if we're really counting) he's doing and why.**

 **I do not own Young Justice. Please review, comment, or criticize constructively. Most of all, enjoy.**

* * *

The Last Daughter

Chapter 11

Explanations

* * *

Kara had to take a moment to just stare and marvel at her surroundings. Dozens of screens streaming what looked to be terrabytes of information in symbols she couldn't understand. Power cables running every which way, but never in a way that they were actually tangled or messy, nor that they might impede movement or maintainence. Metals of swirling silver, green, purple formed almost artistic patterns through the shifting plates of the floor and walls.

"Come." Brainiac's voice sounded, and she shook off the shock of actually seeing the inner workings of his technology, and numbly followed him through a series of doors and hallways, each as eye-catching as the initial room. They finally exited into a massive, domed room, giant cables running into a great chair set into the center of the chamber. Brainiac sat himself down in the chair, cables and plugs extending out of its frame to attach to him as his plates shifted, making space. He leaned back and his eyes closed; the cables and chair and massive network of technology she didn't even have a frame of reference for beneath them glowed. Kara could almost see the data pouring in both directions, like water flowing through a network of springs. She briefly remembered the images one of her mother's sisters had shown her, of springs and lakes that the rising temperatures on Krypton had destroyed in the early days of the core's destabilization. Before the problem had become intractable, and flight from the world the only course of salvation. She snapped out of her memories as Brainiac leaned forward, his eyes opening again.

"I believe it would best serve us both for you to begin, Kara Zor-El." Brainiac said, waving a hand out to her. "Rest assured, all operations by my forces on the planet Earth have been suspended, and will remain so until we are finished." Kara took a deep breath. She had no reason to trust him, but… a part of it made sense. If he thought he didn't know everything about what he did, why shouldn't he put his work on hold until he was sure?

"The key root of the problem was an over-use of resources." Kara began. This, she was intimately familiar with. Both sides of her large extended families had spent hours, sometimes days, debating and talking and comparing notes as they grew more and more aware of the slow death of their world, conversations she often couldn't help but overhear. And which she eventually forced her way into, despite the objections of many adults. "We exhausted most of what Krypton and the few colonies we had established had to offer when my parents were still growing up, and the decision to gradually harvest from the planet's core to offset the losses of energy and materials was the beginning of the end. My Aunt and Uncle were the ones who really put it all together decisively, though a few others had similar ideas they couldn't prove yet before then."

She sighed, and dragged a hand across her face, her mind going back to the discussions, the late nights, the occasional shouting matches between so many people she knew and cared for. Who to tell, how much to tell them, if they were even right.

"Once they proved to themselves what was happening, that the core was destabilizing and would eventually break down, destroying the planet, they tried to figure out what they could do about it." Those had unquestionably been the worst days, Kara thought. When everyone had desperately been trying to find _some way_ to save a world already past the point of salvation. "It took almost two years before they realized that trying to repair the core wouldn't work. It would be the shortest of short-term solutions; continual injections of resources we didn't even have would be needed to keep offsetting destabilization. Eventually my Uncle had another idea. Instead of trying to save Krypton, they should try and save Kryptonians."

She smiled at that. Uncle Jor's plan, like so many other things he'd done, impossibly simple and complex at the same time. "He proposed a total restructuring of society dedicated to one goal; getting as many people off Krypton as possible, starting with the youngest citizens. Setting every aspect of the world to building and fueling ships, plotting out courses, sending probes to chart the way well in advance. It took them months to even get enough data for preliminary estimates. But everyone who knew believed in it, wanted it to be airtight and above reproach when they finally took it to the High Council." Her father had practically collapsed into her arms in relief that day after the initial audience. When even then it seemed like they were in. As though the Council understood the gravity of the situation, and needed only to convince a few skeptics to have the majority needed to put the plan into action.

"Then your scouts intercepted one of our probes, and clashed with border patrols on the moon." She scowled up at him. "Then the rest of your forces came, barely two months later. And your scouts were all anyone was focused on before then. They'd torn through the garrison on the lunar base, and all attention shifted to the question of 'Are there more, and will they come for us?'"

She could see he wanted to interject, but held himself back from doing so. He wanted to hear everything she had to say. It honestly surprised her.

"Your attack didn't take us by surprise in the usual way. We were on alert ever since the battle with your scouts. But we were surprised at how you just rolled over us. How nothing we did seemed to matter to you." She scoffed to herself as the memory hit her. "You know, we actually tried contacting you, when your ship first appeared? You never responded, and the next thing we knew, an army of robots was raining down on us."

Kara glared at him again, her fury building as she remembered. But she kept it in control. She wasn't there to fight. Not yet at least. She was there to talk. To explain her side of things, and to hear his explanations.

"I don't know how many died then. I wasn't even technically part of the military yet; my results from the entrance examination hadn't come in before your main force arrived. But I fought anyways, and I know what I saw your creations do. Vivisecting and butchering people and animals in the streets, disintegrating prisoners…" She had to stop, take several deep breaths. Calm herself. "Our entire defensive line planetside was on the verge of collapsing when my father called the military commander, said he had a weapon that would stop you cold, and he needed my help to finish it."

She turned away then. She didn't want him to see her as she recounted this. "He didn't. He was lying. He'd stolen resources set aside in the early planning phases of the evacuation plan, and built a ship that would take me away from the planet. He knew you were up to something bigger, and he didn't want me there when it happened. But I was still close enough to see it," She turned back him, eyes literally burning in anger as she felt heat vision build up behind her eyeballs. "To see you wipe our capital city, Kandor, off the face of the planet. And you did a lot more than just destroy the planetary capital. You plunged the whole world into chaos. Most of the council was destroyed with the city, along with some of our best scientists and our largest stocks of resources. No-one left could maintain order, and everything started breaking down. The military commander, Zod, tried to force the remnants of the government to follow through with the plan my family devised. To try and evacuate as many Kryptonians as they could. But support had waned in light of the losses, and because of what my father did. And when they refused, Zod went to war with them. A war that squandered the last of our resources, the last of the time everyone still had. My Aunt and Uncle built a small ship of their own, and sent their son away in it after the war ended, barely hours before the planet collapsed on itself."

She heard a pattering, tiny objects hitting metal. She numbly realized tears were tracking down her face, falling onto the half-shattered chestplate of her warsuit.

"You tore our attention away from working to save ourselves, and you left nothing behind but chaos, so we never had a chance to recover like we needed to. Because of what you did, my people couldn't save themselves." Kara finally finished, glaring through her tears at Brainiac. She couldn't read his face. She knew he could form expressions, though whether he actually felt anything was up in the air for her, but his face was utterly inscrutable.

She watched him lean back and streams of data flow again, before he recovered his seat and fixed his eyes on her.

"As context," he said, sounding almost… tepid. "Was necessary to understand your half of this conundrum, so too will it be necessary to understand mine." He held his hand out, and a series of holograms formed above his palm. He cast them down, the light forming into fascimiles of planets she'd never seen before, small screens opening above each one, filled with footage. She saw rolling fields of silver grass, titanic waves that crashed upon shores of crystal, grand temples of stone and jade rising higher than the great mountains behind them.

"Most of my people are content to simply exist on the homeworld, living as part of a great collective, rarely interacting with the galaxy at large. I was not. I desired to explore, to see all the vastness of the universe had to offer. But my wandering was aimless, little more than sightseeing. It was in this system, near the edge of the galaxy, that I discovered true direction. True purpose."

Brainiac… sighed. Or at least, gave his approximation of a sigh. "I observed and archived minor specimens and footage from the worlds before you over a galactic standard year, until something happened I did not anticipate." The sun in the center of the holographic solar system suddenly heaved, and burst outward. In seconds, every world was swallowed by the explosion. The footage shifted as the silver fields burned; the seas boiled over the crystal that melted in the heat; the temples were annihilated as winds and heat beyond comprehension swept them away with the mountains they surpassed, the surface of the world itself crumbling beneath the onslaught.

"Ironically, as with your world's core, the sun, in a almost unprecedented manner, rapidly destabilized and went supernova, destroying the entire system. I myself barely escaped the blast, and could only watch as billions of years of evolution and change and beauty were wiped out in a matter of minutes. My cursory observations the only proof of them ever having existed at all." Kara watched his right hand curl into a fist and realized, with a start, that he sounded mournful.

"I knew then what I had to attempt," Brainiac continued after a few seconds of thought. "As unlikely as this event had been, it could not be the only such case. Nor could statistically unlikely supernovas be the only source of sudden destruction of worlds and life. The universe is harsh, uncaring, and relentless. Whether a world has newly formed, or hosts a trillion forms of life that have evolved over billions of years, all can be lost," He snapped his fingers. "In an instant. Merely because a world seems safe over an infantismal amount of time, there is no assurance it will remain so. So I resolved to stand against such demands of existence. Life would not be so easily snuffed out again. But I realized early on I could not achieve such tasks as single-handedly preserving every planet in the galaxy. I would need to scale back in scope, and prioritize my efforts to planets that would be threatened with annihilation in the relatively near future. I also need a way to analyze the life of a world in greater depth, to understand what I need to create to help preserve it."

He looked almost… bashful. "I must admit, my eventual solution is apparently… unrefined in practice. I had not fully considered the reactions of sufficiently developed life forms to my efforts of analysis. Rest assured that I will, regardless of the outcome of our efforts here, endeavor to redesign my workforce to reach a less… harmful state."

Kara honestly couldn't believe what she was hearing. "I must also debate you on a major point, Kara Zor-El. My goal is to preserve endangered life, endangered worlds. What would I gain by destroying the subjects of my efforts at an sub-atomic level?" He shook his head, and finally rose from the chair. "It may perhaps be easier for you to accept the explanation of my efforts should you also see their fruit." He waved as hand as the cables and plugs disconnected and his plates slid back into place. Another burning doorway opened at the foot of the stairs leading to his chair.

Brainiac went through first, and Kara could only numbly follow. He'd led her into a viewing booth, above a massive complex of shelves and containment modules. She could see wires running into the bottoms of thousands upon thousands of modules. She briefly wondered how all this fit into the ship; it certainly didn't seem big enough. But Brainiac tapped at a holographic display, and the modules shifted, one rising out of the mass and floating towards the booth, the metal casing sliding backwards.

"I did not destroy your city, Kara," Brainiac said as the module reached the glass. "Nor did I destroy all of those you claim I have. I _preserved_ them."

Kara couldn't believe her eyes. In the center of the module, down to the badlands she remembered from Zod's training sessions, was a miniaturized replica of Kandor, maybe the size of a small plate. It took her minutes of simply gaping before her mind finally accepted what Brainiac was trying to tell her. That what was in the module wasn't a replica of Kandor. It _was_ Kandor.

* * *

 **BAM! BOTTLED CITY, EVERYBODY! WHOOO!**

 **Okay, so yeah. Like I said, I tried to imply where I could that because no-one could fully understand anything about Brainiac's technology, no-one really understood what was actually happening whenever he was involved. Remember all the times people and Kandor seemed to be vaporized by lazers? More to the point, anyone remember the episode of YJ where they pulled a double-twist and made us** _ **think**_ **that vaporized heroes were simply hit with transporter beams, and everyone just assumed they were deadly lazers because why wouldn't they?**

 **Yeah, that's basically what's been going on this entire time with Brainiac (only without the double-twist of the lazers being just actual deadly lazers). Everyone's always assumed he's just some superintelligent asshole violently butchering people with his robot army, and then blowing up a chunk of their planet for kicks. He's actually more like an early-years conservation scientist; we've just been hearing about his actions from the perspective of all the animals he's forcibly stolen specimens from.**

 **I mean, think about the crap that scientists do so they can study animals, or get them into conservatories. Animals are probably scared shitless of these weird people in coats with metal boxes that can outrun them, shooting them with things that make them really tired, stabbing tags into their ears, taking them to unfamiliar places and sometimes never letting them leave at all (even if some of those places are actually pretty nice and there are other animals around).**

 **I got that idea of perspective in my head very early on to think of this version of Brainiac: he's a conservationist who doesn't know how fucking terrifying he is to all the animals he's dedicated his life to saving. Though I knew he'd need to concede that his drones actually are kinda quite inhumane from any perspective that isn't his, and that's something he's gonna have to work on for everyone's sake (including his own). He's a man (or mandroid) blinded by science and his fairly noble purpose of saving chunks of species and worlds he determines are in or will be in apocalyptic danger.**

 **Personal disclosure, that opening bit of Brainiac's with the system of awesome planets destroyed by a supernova; so happy I could finally write that bit of hardcore-af-pathos for a seemingly maniacal killer mandroid. I asked myself early on how I could have Brainiac justify what he was ultimately inflicting on worlds in the name of saving them, and that idea of worlds of beauty and splendor and life just wiped out in minutes, and all he can do is watch… knew I had it down right then and there.**

 **There's also a reason Kara kept reminiscing about how kinda-awful it was growing up in a large family of scientific geniuses who figured out that their planet was straight-up doomed. Keep that in mind going forward. Her experiences then might be important later.**


End file.
